Albuquerque’s CoolBiz Program gets its own website

The Sierra Club’s Cool Cities Campaign works with cities that have joined the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement to accelerate their implementation of effective programs.

The program – led by volunteers nationwide – is collaboration between community members, local leaders, businesses, and organizations to implement clean energy solutions that save money, create jobs, and help curb global warming. Resources for businesses to learn how to increase energy efficiency, reduce cost, and reduce waste through online and downloadable resources and through networking with other business owners. The resulting improvements will reduce carbon emissions, increase profitability as “green” consumers support CoolBiz organizations with their purchasing.

In New Mexico, seven cities are participating in the program: Alamogordo, Albuquerque, Capitan, Las Cruces, Ruidoso, Santa Fe (City and County), and Taos.

Santa Fe’s campaign leads the way in New Mexico. Founded in 2008, “CoolBiz” is the business outreach component of the Northern New Mexico Group’s Cool Cities campaign. Both campaigns emphasize energy efficiency, reducing waste and minimizing cost within businesses and non-profit organizations.

Starting in April 2009, a team of talented individuals from Albuquerque Net Impact Professionals and the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club volunteered to start a local CoolBiz program. CoolBiz Albuquerque is a free program, providing recognition for businesses that demonstrate progress in becoming more energy-efficient, using natural resources more wisely, and reducing waste.

The program involves hard work, ingenuity, and insight from its leadership team and recently had a successful website launch. To visit the website, go to http://www.coolbizabq.org.

The team is currently working toward the next stage of membership growth and program implementation. There are four levels of commitment for businesses, with four being highly devoted with programs such as subsidized public transportation, purchasing renewable energy, green building standards, etc.

CoolBiz currently has 21 business members enrolled, sixteen of whom qualify for their top two tiers. They had successful canvassing this past spring and have since conducted a follow-up phonebank session and multiple on-site visits with the business owners. CoolBiz hopes to more than double in size in both volunteers and participant businesses in the coming year 2011.

For more information, please contact the project coordinator, Amber Harris at ambersky12@gmail.com".