The mission of the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado is to catalyze the shift to a truly sustainable world by fostering collaboration among businesses, nonprofits, governments and academia. The organization is unifying and creating a hub for Colorado's sustainability movement. This is achieved by building collaborative networks and communication channels, providing education, advancing public policy initiatives, demonstrating best practices, and hosting interactive workshops and forums. Concurrent to this effort, the organization is fostering a national network of state-based organizations by linking its efforts to organizations doing similar work in every other state.

The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado was founded on the principle that issues of sustainability are most effectively addressed when all interests are represented. The organization builds broadly inclusive alliances across every sector of society with the recognition that issues of sustainability and social justice are inextricably linked.

The mission of the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado is to catalyze the shift to a truly sustainable world by fostering collaboration among nonprofits, businesses, governments and academia.

Our work brings businesses, nonprofits, governments and academia together to effect the adoption of practices leading to sustainability. We are building a hub of sustainability that includes and serves every interest in Colorado.

• Demonstration of Green Building Design and Muli-tenant Collaborative Community: Our building, the Alliance Center, is a collaborative hub for 27 organizations focused on triple bottom line priorities. The building creates synergies and fosters multi-layered partnerships that accelerate progress on statewide issues of economic, social and environmental sustainability. The building is LEED certified Gold by the US Green Building Council and is the focus of hundreds of tours provided each year to building and design professionals, business and government leaders, students and citizens.
• Sustainability Alliances - The organization cultivates collaborative alliances such as Colorado Alliance for Sustainable Business Associations (CASBA), and the multi-layered nonprofit partnerships that characterize the Alliance Center.
• Public Policy – This program connects the four sectors in common pursuit of policy solutions, and guides new policy through the legislative process.
• Education – Provides green building and sustainability education through Alliance Center tours, resource sharing, and the facilitation of training programs and public education events.
• Regional and National Outreach – Linking state-based sustainability efforts nationwide. Our research and outreach team identifies organizations doing similar work, and hosts national round table conferences where best practices are shared, networks enlarged, and collaborative strategies devised.

2nd Annual Sustainability Gala - and "Heroes of Sustainability" Awards Presentation, October 16, 2008 at the Sherman Events Center in Denver.

Rebecca Saltman, Executive Director: Ms. Saltman has been working in public relations, fundraising and grass roots coalition building for 20 years. Rebecca worked on one of the world’s largest collaborative efforts opening the Boston and New York offices for Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Her work led to the opening of the New York Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust on September 11, 1997.

John Powers, Board President and Founder
AJ Grant, Environmental Communications Associates, Inc.
Mark Hughes, Two Rivers Institute and University of Denver
David Orr, Oberlin College
Steve Schueth, First Affirmative Financial

Education Foundation of America
Wallace Global Fund
Western Conservation Foundation

The founding principle of the organization is that complex issues critical to the long-term health and vitality of our planet and its inhabitants must be addressed through partnerships that connect every sector and every interest, no matter how diverse. Consistent with our belief in collaboration, we believe that networking with other sustainability groups across state boundaries can fundamentally change the institutional capacity of each organization and consequently our collective impact. Our long-term goal is to foster a national network of 50 state-based sustainability organizations.

• Provide expertise to the Democratic National Convention and City of Denver on greening the convention in August.
• Advance at least three legislative policy initiatives in 2008 and 2009. Our priorities are energy-efficiency in state and commercial buildings, public transportation infrastructure, and reduction in carbon emissions.
• Develop and disseminate a common set of sustainability principles for business.
• Provide at six half-day industry-specific workshops on how to integrate sustainability principles.
• Host at least 6 regional and national round-table conferences to share best practices, organization models, innovative methods and strategies, and to build a national network of state-based sustainability organizations.

• Guided by a collaborative network created by the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, Senate Bill 07-51 was officially passed in 2007, requiring high-performance green building standards for any building receiving 25% or more of its funding from the state.
• Over 100 sustainability proponents attended exploratory round tables facilitated by the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado in Denver, Colorado Springs, Durango and Telluride to foster collaboration among the four sectors across the state.
• Nonprofit organizations from Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri attended the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado’s first national round table to explore linkages to a national network.
• In 2007, more than 750 people took guided tours of the Alliance Center, exploring its green features and collaborative design.
• In 2007, more than 5,000 citizens attended educational functions hosted or co-hosted by The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado including Al Gore’s live presentation on global warming and pre-release screenings of Leonardo DiCaprio’s eco-documentary “The 11th Hour.”