A little over a month ago, CNN reported that, “More than 3 million of gallons of wastewater from the Gold King Mine spilled into the nearby Animas River.” According to the Denver Post the river has been safe for recreational use since a little more than a week after the spill, and even the fish in the river are now safe to eat. However, this contamination caused quite a commotion for good reason, and there are reasons to be exceedingly cautious of this sort of event happening in the future. CNN reported that “Leading toxicologists say there could be health effects for many years... Read More

 “There’s a lot more to coffee than beans” – Pixán founders, Louisa Lombera and Gates Gooding   I’ll take a short break from featuring businesses explicitly endurance-athlete related to focus on a product that embodies other important ideals for Boulder businesses: organically grown, sustainable, environmental management, social responsibility, improving markets for Latin American farmers and something many of us enjoy daily: COFFEE. Were your first thoughts while sipping this morning’s coffee, “I wonder if the entire coffee plant is being used to... Read More

When I was a barista in Brooklyn, I remember a customer asking for the café’s unwanted coffee grounds for his home composting. We had tons of it—leftover from the espresso grinder and from making drip coffee—filling up our trashcans so we were happy to pass some on to him. Recycling coffee grounds into your compost or fertilizer is a fantastic way to cut down on coffee waste. It’s also a great way to add valuable nutrients to your garden, since coffee is full of nitrogen and antioxidants. Another fun use for coffee, which I also learned while working at that shop in Brooklyn, is for skincare.... Read More

Boulder is a famously health-conscious place—it’s consistently ranked as one of the fittest cities in America, and the abundance of beautiful trails and natural foods stores certainly makes it easy to be healthy and active. Unfortunately where interest lies, misinformation usually follows, and that’s the case with GMOs. Around here, you’ve probably seen labels on all kinds of food proudly trumpeting “Contains No GMOs!” but that little label is much more loaded than with just information. It’s a deeply emotional issue, one that forms unbreakable opinions on both sides and discussion... Read More

About 10 years ago, bees all over the US started dying off in droves and no one could figure out why. The blight kept spreading and the mystery deepened, getting lots of media attention and an apocalyptic-sounding name: Colony Collapse Disorder. Farmers, understandably, panicked. Without bees to pollinate their crops, production would be decimated—from blueberries to oranges to carrots, almost everything in the produce aisle would disappear. Now, symptoms of Colony Collapse Disorder aren’t as common as they used to be but bees are still dying off at an alarming rate. Beekeepers and researchers... Read More

Women in various countries, from different backgrounds, are working to sustain the global coffee industry. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, female coffee farmers and retailers face the same gender inequality and wage gap that exists in every workforce. From farm to shop, the commodity of the bean too often trumps the livelihood of the employees, especially the female ones. Poor or working class women of color, who live in coffee producing countries, are the most vulnerable to being undervalued in the business. But even in the predominately white and middle class world of Western retail coffee,... Read More

  Throughout the ages as human society has developed our planet and conquered new frontiers, people brought with them all sorts of things.  Including other species. Anthropogenic development has allowed other species to inhabit places once not accessible to them by riding on the metaphorical coattails of humanity.  In fact white-nose syndrome, which continues to devastate bat populations across North America, arrived in North America on the actual bottom of someone’s shoe that the person had worn spelunking.  Invasive species can cause no major issue for their new environments but can... Read More

2015 is a new year, full of potential. While there is a collective hope for a more sustainable future not just locally but across the world, it is important to not forget sustainability’s local victories that have already happened.   Boulder county is a region where there has already been notable successful sustainable reform.  According to Boulder county’s website, sustainability means “The use, development and protection of resources in a way that enables Boulder county residents to meet their needs and maintain a high quality of life, without compromising the ability of future... Read More

The Mountain Pine Beetles have been a prevalent issue for forests across North America for roughly a decade; however, new uses for the large number of trees that Beetles have killed have proven an affordable raw material for producing a variety of goods.   “Only [seven] years ago, industry believed little could be done with it apart from artistic or cosmetic uses for wood, which was being marketed as ‘denim pine.’ Traditional uses of pine, in construction and elsewhere, were considered impossible for beetle-kill wood”. – The Sustainable Lumber Company While builders... Read More

One of the largest agricultural producing regions of the United States is under grave danger from water shortages.  According to Mercury News, “The Central Valley, home to the world’s largest swath of ultra-fertile Class 1 soil, is the backbone of California’s $36.9 billion a year, high-tech agricultural industry. Its 6.3 million acres of farmland produce more 350 crops, from fruits and vegetables to nuts and cotton, representing 25 percent of the food on the nation’s table”.  This modern day bread basket of the United States produces a quarter of the food that... Read More