SUMMER 2014
Bringing self-sufficiency and sustainability home
Can we save our ash trees from the emerald ash borer? • Researchers aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, but they are trying to reinvent the toilet • Exploring the world of sensory deprivation • Co-op looks to reconnect community with its food sources
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Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
Summer 2014
Boulderganic Summer issue is here! Susan France
Staff Publisher, Stewart Sallo Special Editions Editor, Caitlin Rockett Advertising Director, Jeff Cole Director of Operations/ Controller, Benecia Beyer Circulation Manager, Cal Winn
As a local community member, Nora Kalman, 2 1/2 years old, shops at The Second Kitchen food co-op in Boulder.
Editorial
Editor, Joel Dyer Associate Editors, Elizabeth Miller Matt Cortina, Josh Gross
Sales
Retail Sales Manager, Allen Carmichael Digital Portfolio Sales Manager, Kirk Koskey Senior Account Executive, David Hasson Account Executives, Julian Bourke, Andrea Craven, Jacqueline Grewe, Nick Paetsch
Production
Production Manager, Dave Kirby Art Director, Susan France Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman
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Assistant to the Publisher, Julia Sallo Office Manager, Andrea Neville Circulation Team, Dave Hastie, Dan Hill, George LaRoe, Jeffrey Lohrius, Elizabeth Ouslie, Rick Slama 14-Year-Old, Mia Rose Sallo
contents: Environmental Issues 6 Food & Garden 12 Sustainability 19 Business 25 Health & Fitness 33
Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
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s residents of the Centennial State, we know Colorado is beautiful — from the farms of its sweeping eastern plains to the rugged, snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains to its semi-arid southwestern chaparral deserts. It’s not hard to understand why Colorado is the fourth fastest growing state in the nation. We’ve really got something for everyone. But life in the West is as complex as it is beautiful. Colorado’s booming population is putting too high a demand on a limited supply of water. Invasive species are killing many of our favorite trees. And our picturesque state, with its purple mountains majesty, is home to the largest number of waste tires in the entire nation. In this edition of Boulderganic we explore a number of the environmental issues Boulder County and Colorado are currently facing: whether it’s possible to look to Colorado’s rivers and streams for more hydropower generation without devastating riparian ecosystems; if Boulder County can save its ash trees from the lovely yet deadly emerald ash borer; and how new legislation could not only clean up our state’s waste tire problem, but also create a robust recycling industry. We’ll show you some of the innovative and fun ways businesses in our community are helping folks get reconnected to the sources of their food, and how two local companies came together to develop what will be Boulder County’s most energy efficient house to date. And we didn’t forget it’s summer: we know you’ve probably got your dance card filled to capacity with sundrenched hiking, biking, running, kayaking and climbing, and whether you’re a seasoned athlete or an eager novice, injuries happen. Take a look at our health and fitness section to learn more about taking care of sports injuries when they occur. And take a journey with us as we explore the world of sensory deprivation — how it can open your creativity and ease your physical and mental pains. We hope you’ll enjoy our latest edition. Respond: info@boulderganic.com
June 19, 2014 5
Ash borers? You can blame Marco Polo’s camels
With limited treatment options, arborists emphasize replanting with different species by Bob Berwyn
T
he story of invasive species goes all the way back to the earliest stages of human development, when bands of hominids dispersing from Africa carried with them the crumbs, seeds and eggs of whatever ecosystems they happened to be passing through. And you can be sure that, along with silk and spices, Marco Polo’s camels transported disease-ridden fleas between Europe and Asia. More recently, European settlers introduced all kinds of pathogens to North America. For example, wellmeaning immigrants brought with them berry bushes infected with a fungus that now threatens ancient trees high in the Rocky Mountains. What has changed in recent decades is the speed at which new invaders are spreading, criss-crossing to and from every corner of the Earth in the age of jet travel and global trade. From ecosystem-killing quagga mussels in Lake Powell and parasitic mites in honeybee hives all the way to white-nose syndrome, which has wiped out millions of bats, invasive species are inexorably changing their new habitats in ways that can directly affect our daily lives. That would, of course, include the emerald ash borer, a small metallic green bug that hitchhiked to North America in packing crates about 20 years ago and has already killed more than 150 million ash trees in the Midwest. With no predators to keep populations in check, forest experts say the insects may end up nearly wiping out most North American ash trees, including many of the ornamental specimens growing in Boulder. The first ash borers were found 6 June 19, 2014
Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
With no natural predators in the area, experts say the emerald ash borer may nearly wipe out ash trees in Boulder.
in the city in September 2013 and a subsequent survey, completed in January, found the insects in neighborhoods throughout Boulder, creating grim prospects for the beloved and economically valuable shade trees. According to city forestry officials and other experts, the bugs will probably kill most trees without a direct application of pesticides. “We’re probably going to lose a quarter of our hard-won urban forest,” says Kevin Marks, one of only nine board-certified master arborists in Colorado. And that forest didn’t come easily to start with, Marks adds, explaining that when the settlers arrived at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, it was all grass. Nearly all the city’s pleasing shade trees are themselves invasive species of sorts and were hand-planted, watered and babied to help them
survive the extreme conditions along the Front Range. As city officials scramble to determine the extent of the infestation and to develop some kind of response plan, federal researchers are starting to pinpoint where the bugs first touched down and how fast they’re spreading. In a report published in May, Forest Service scientists said the ash borer probably established itself as early as the mid-1990s in southeast Michigan. For the first few years, the insects spread slowly, at about two miles per year, says Frank Telewskim, a professor of plant biology at Michigan State University. But in an almost inevitable population explosion, the ash borers established satellite colonies and started to spread up to eight miles per year, clearly with some help from humans, because their natural rate of
spread is only about two miles per year. A combination of natural emerald ash borer dispersal and human- assisted movement of infested ash material, such as nursery trees, logs and firewood, likely led to formation of many satellite colonies and the rapid progression of ash mortality, said U.S. Forest Service entomologist Nate Siegert. “There are three different options,” Marks says, adding that he just had his busiest winter in 20 years in the Boulder area, mainly on account of ash borer concerns. “There’s soil injection, trunk spraying and trunk injection, which is the most effective, but there are still plenty of failures,” he says. “One of the big things is, you have to get ahead of it. If you’re in a preventive mode, it works.” Once the trees are stricken, the prospects aren’t so good, he says, adding that trunk-injection seems to be the preferred treatment option. Not only is it most effective, but it minimizes potential side effects of the powerful pesticide by keeping it contained within the tree. And protection doesn’t come cheap. Treatment averages about $15-$225 per tree, and with nearly 100,000 ash trees in Boulder, and more than a million in Denver ... well, you can do the math. And like with any of our other tangled relationships with chemical solutions, the use of pesticides can quickly create a dependency. “Once you start, you’re going to be doing it forever,” Marks says. “You can’t just treat the trees once and walk away. If you do, they’ll probably be killed by the bugs.”
Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Damage caused by an emerald ash borer Right, The emerald ash borer has already killed 150 million ash trees in the Midwest.
In Asia, where emerald ash borer is native, trees have evolved to be able to resist the beetles. There are also natural predators, including parasitic wasps that keep ash borer populations in check. Federal and state forestry experts have experimented with some biological control techniques and have even released some natural predators in parts of the Midwest to assess how well they might work, but the answers are still several years in the future. One might also think, why not start planting ash species from Asia that are resistant to emerald ash borers? But it’s never quite that easy. It turns out those trees are highly susceptible to North American bugs like the lilac ash borer, Marks says. Perhaps the best thing urban planners and property owners can do is to break out of the “save the trees” mindset, he says, explaining that ash trees were adopted as urban trees after Dutch elm disease wiped out most North American elms. “You’ve got to be thinking about the next phase of the landscape. We all want what we want in our yard, but we’re all just passing through,” he says, adding that maintaining tree diversity is probably the best way to protect against catastrophic events like the emerald ash borer outbreak. Given that maples and oaks are among the most widespread tree species globally, those varieties might be a good bet to hedge against future insect invasions. “Limiting any one tree species to 10 percent of your planting is a good general rule of thumb. If you really, really want to protect some ash trees, go ahead and use the pesticides. If not, invest in replanting,” he says. Respond: info@boulderganic.com Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
June 19, 2014 7
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Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/Robert Etzel
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f you’ve ever spent years. New technology time around one of and engineering will make Colorado’s rivers or existing hydroelectric streams during spring operations more producand summer runoff, tive, and there’s still plenty you’ve had a taste of of untapped hydropower nature at its best. Superpotential — up to 3.8 charged, ionized air, forest gigawatts in Colorado and wildflowers, and, alone and up to 65 gigaabove all, massive torrents watts around the country, of water sweeping from according to a new U.S. the high Rockies out into Department of Energy rethe plains, or through port that took the closest sandstone canyons toward While large hydropower projects like the Chatfield Dam aren’t likely to crop up in Colorado again, micro look yet at the potential hydropower projects could add up to 3.8 gigawatts of renewable energy to the state’s grid in the future. the distant Pacific. for new hydropower Long before humans generation. By most rough harnessed electricity, estimates, a gigawatt is they sensed the power of enough electricity to moving water and found power about 750,000 to 1 ways to make use of it million homes. — think of those ancient No need to cringe waterwheels, turning at the thought of masmassive smoothed stones sive new fish-killing dams. to mill grain. As long as With modern engineering 2,000 years ago, Greeks and emerging technoloused the energy of movgies, most of those gains ing water to saw wood could come at a minimal and power textile mills. environmental expense, by Bob Berwyn In the late 1800s, at according to Shih-Chieh the dawn of the industrial Kao, a research scientist age, clever engineers finally figured ervoirs to feed hungry turbines, and fossil fuels, it would add another 200 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory out how to hook connect a brush in Scandinavia, where plentiful precipi- million metric tons of carbon emiswho was lead investigator for the dynamo — a type of electric gentation sustains large rivers year-round sions to the atmosphere. While the hydropower research project. erator — with a turbine to generate to run hydropower operations. U.S. is the fourth-biggest producer of “One thing we really need power for storefront and theater In the U.S., solar and wind get all hydropower in the world, it lags on to know is, by region, how much lighting in Grand Rapids, Mich. Within the glory these days as renewables, a percentage basis. Austria generates hydropower development potential a few decades, hydropower became but hydropower has long been the 47 percent of its power from hydro, we missed,” Kao says, explaining that a key source of energy in the U.S. number one source of renewable and Norway is the world champ, at 99 the research was part of the Obama and around the world — more so in energy, providing about 7 percent of percent. administration’s push to develop new countries like Switzerland and Austria, the country’s total electric power. But that number could go up in see HYDROPOWER Page 10 which built numerous high alpine resIf all that juice were generated by the U.S. and in Colorado in coming
New hydropower could ease transition from fossil fuels New study suggests the U.S. could add enough hydropower to provide electricity for up to 65 million homes
Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
June 19, 2014 9
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HYDROPOWER from Page 9
sources of renewable energy. The findings are not intended to provide site-specific guidance for development. They’re meant as a roadmap of sorts for energy planners. And while the numbers sound impressive, the total is actually a big cut from previous estimates, partly because the researchers took a hard look at environmental constraints, Kao says, describing how the streamreach development assessment incorporated new stream flow data and land-use information, especially relating to sensitive and protected lands and endangered species. Crunching the data for Colorado wasn’t easy, he says, referring to the state’s complex water rights allocation system. Because most of the state’s water is already allocated, some of it several times over, there probably will never be a big new hydropower project, but there’s plenty of potential for smaller scale versions, even along irrigation canals. At a community scale, new hydropower could be a huge and positive addition to an emerging distributed power grid built on the idea that electricity should be produced as close as possible to the area where it’s going to be used. That reduces the need for expensive new power transmission infrastructure and also saves energy, because power is lost along every mile of transmission. Colorado is moving in this direction, with four projects currently under development that have already been approved under a streamlined federal regulatory process authorized
under a bill sponsored by the state’s congressional delegation. All four are small community scale projects, including a six-kilowatt project in Garfield County, the Pandora water project in Telluride (320kW), a 22-kW project in Orchard City and an 11kW facility in Silverton. On a slightly larger scale, the Montrose South Canal project came online recently, generating 7.5 megawatts, along with a new 2.6-MW facility at Carter Lake and the 8-MW project at Ridgeway Dam. All of the projects are either diversions or retrofits to existing dams or impoundments. They are classified as either small hydro or micro hydro projects, according to Nate Watters, spokesman with the Colorado Energy Office. “During the past decade, small hydro and micro hydro technologies have made great strides to make projects more economically viable,” Watters says. “Advances include low-priced and surprisingly compact turbinealternator units, dropping prices for small inverters and charge controllers. Manufacturing hydro equipment at lower costs will continue to drive interest in further development of hydro resources,” he adds. The federal study included Colorado as one of the states with the most untapped hydropower potential, along with other parts of the West, including Alaska, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, showing a possible path away from reliance on fossil fuels. Respond: info@boulderganic.com
Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
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Wikimedia Commons/Brian Chu
A
s the days get longer and the temperature rises, it seems that welcoming, familiar smell begins to fill the air each afternoon — somebody’s fired up the grill. It’s a tradition that’s quintessential to summer. It just doesn’t quite feel like summer until you’ve tossed a few burgers (maybe a couple portabella caps for the veggie Nothing says summer like the smell of carcinogens. crowd) on the grill, a cold beer in one hand and tongs in the other. But few of us ever stop to think about the environmental impact of our summer barbeques. That’s right: your favorite summer pastime comes with consequences beyond eating too many hot dogs before by Caitlin Rockett you hop in the pool, but you can take steps to lessen your impact on the environment this sum- behind why that is. First, as a fuel, radiological health sciences at Colomer when you’re planning to head propane is produced more effirado State University, agrees with out to the grill and cook up some ciently than charcoal. While charcoal Johnson’s work. grub. is a biomass, which might make it “There are a couple reasons why First, consider what you’re grilling seem cleaner, most of the wood burning biomass residentially in the with. The debate over whether to that is heated to created charcoal is U.S. is not more environmentally use charcoal or propane goes far converted to gas and emitted into friendly than other forms of cookbeyond the taste it imparts on your the atmosphere, leaving somewhere ing,” says Volckens. “One, when we’re food. A 2009 study by environmenbetween 20 and 35 percent as actual burning wood, that form of combustal consultant Eric Johnson found charcoal. Yields of propane, however, tion is not entirely clean — it emits that grilling with charcoal leads to a are greater than 90 percent, accordvolatile organic chemicals in the carbon footprint three times that of ing to Johnson’s research. atmosphere, and particulate matter propane. John Volckens, a professor in the in the atmosphere. And we breathe There are a number of factors department of environmental and the air that is in and around our
Green your grill
homes, and if enough people are burning in an area, pollutant concentrations build up — it’s not insignificant.” Volckens is leading a study — which received a $1.5 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency — to look at cook stoves on a global scale, primarily for those in developing countries that don’t have access to natural gas or electrical infrastructure. “These people are basically starting a campfire in the kitchen to provide a source of energy for food, light and heat for their family, and there are about 3 billion of those people on the planet,” says Volcken. “You can imagine for 3 billion campfires started on the planet each day, that can contribute quite a bit of pollution to the planet. We’re tying to understand the effect that has on climate.” But Volckens’ team also wants to protect human health. He explains that charcoal grilling contributes to ground level ozone, which is the main component of smog. While the ozone at the upper regions of Earth’s atmosphere protect us from the sun’s harmful rays, ground level ozone can create health effects such as chest pain, coughing, throat irritation and congestion. “Ozone is a major problem here
Your charcoal grill is bad for the environment and your health, but making it more environmentally friendly is easy to do
12 June 19, 2014
Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
Wikimedia Commons
on the Front Range. Almost every city on the Front Range is going to be deemed noncompliant for EPA’s ozone standard,” says Volckens. “Believe it or not, barbequing can contribute enough pollution to affect ozone pollution.” The Environmental Protection Agency released a draft document early in February saying that the agency should reform the current ozone standard to a level as low as 60 parts per billion, down from 75 parts per billion. Grilled foods can even have deleterious effects on your health. A Swedish study found that when meat fat drips on the hot coals of a charcoal grill, the smoke that arises actually contains a carcinogenic compound known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. PAH and another carcinogenic compound called HCAs (heterocyclic amines, if you’re into the science of it all) will also form in meats cooked using high-temperature methods. According to the National Cancer Institute, ongoing studies are investigating the association between meat intake, meat cooking methods and cancer risk. “Cooking with charcoal is highly culturally accepted,” says Volckens. “We think foods coming from a charcoal grill taste better, but the byproducts of charcoal production are significantly more harmful.” “For PAHs, when you get char on the food or when food is cooked under smoky conditions, those PAHS will be present in the smoke and the char and they go into your body.
Propane and propane accessories are the Hank Hill method of doing good for your health, but you can also use rosemary and thyme.
There’s a lot of research that shows people who eat more of those charred foods are getting more diseases than people who [eat less Wikimedia Commons
You might think food tastes better when grilled with charcoal, but is it worth the harm it does to you and the environment?
Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
charred foods].” But J. Scott Smith, a professor of food chemistry at the Kansas State University, spent some time
a few years back figuring out how to provide some protection against carcinogens found in grilled meats. Turns out it’s as easy as marinating meats with the right blend of herbs and spices. Smith’s group measured HCAs in grilled round steaks before and after grilling and found that marinating them in a product containing rosemary and thyme reduced levels of HCAs by 87 percent, which the team found was correlated to the amount of antioxidants present in the marinade. An even better way to sate your need to grill without the risk of cancer is to toss some veggies on the Barbie, as fruits and vegetables don’t contain the protein and amino acids that create HCAs in grilled meat. After all this work to green your grill, don’t let safety fall to the wayside. Here in the West, wildfire is a serious matter. Kim Scott, the life safety educator and spokesperson for Boulder Fire Rescue, says it’s easy to let a fun afternoon of grilling turn into a dangerous situation. No charcoal or woodfire grills are allowed in Boulder city limits, so when you’re firing up your propane grill for the first time after winter, check the hose. “Cold temperatures and high altitude can cause cracks in the gas line,” says Scott. She adds that grills should be attended at all times, placed well away from homes, and grills should be cleaned either right before or directly after use. Respond: info@boulderganic.com June 19, 2014 13
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Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
Courtesy of CorpCROP
Boulder-based CorpCROP sets up gardens at local business, giving employees the chance to be active and collaborate in a fun way during the work day.
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orpCROP is on a mission to get you off your chair and out into the sunlight. With the rise in health issues due to sitting behind a desk all day, people like Jennifer Klafin, founder and managing director of CorpCROP, are figuring out ways to help keep office workers happier and healthier. Born from a dedication to living
zation so that the program through that company actually gives back to their local community,” says Klafin. “The younger generations are looking for companies that are giving back to the community,” says Klafin. “Even if their job isn’t directly related to that, they can still participate in a program at their company that has that meaningful ‘giving back’ aspect.”
Corporate gardening for a sustainable world Making a difference on your lunch break with CorpCROP by Andrea Neville a life of sustainability, CorpCROP builds gardens at companies that employees can work on as a team. While tending to the garden gets employees active, they’re also helping provide food for their co-workers and their community. “We encourage businesses to donate 50 percent of their produce so we coordinate with each business and find a local philanthropic organi-
While she was working for a large corporation, Klafin got stuck behind a desk and started wondering if there was a healthier way to live, both physically and mentally. She realized that employees could be happier at work if they were able to get outside, even if only for a few minutes a day. “There was an urban permaculture farm right down where I lived in
Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
San Francisco and I got really inspired to learn about urban gardening and it just dawned on me one day there is this huge wave of urban gardening and community gardening, but there is nothing that I know of on a large scale being done at businesses,” Klafin says. Klafin’s team members at CorpCROP are all concentrated on helping employees become more excited about being part of a gardening team. “As time went on, I wanted to become more involved with a company that was more focused on things like nutrition and philanthropic aspects,” says Michael Brooke, CorpCROP’s independent sales representative for the company’s Southwest Region. Brooke has been focused on Arizona, where they have the opposite growing season of Colorado. CorpCROP has expanded there with the hopes of providing year-round gardening opportunities for corporate employees. “Organic gardening is something that was very interesting to me. I eat organic and try to focus my nutrition on natural and organic foods,” says Brooke, “All that together and trying to get people to eat better and having a green and sustainable product
was very intriguing to me.” While each garden must be tailormade for the specific needs of the company, every corporation will follow a certain format, including having weekly challenges. “We do everything end to end, so everything from securing the garden, getting the property manager to agree on the structure, and providing all the gardening materials that they need,” Klafin says. Each member of the gardening team is assigned a task. By fulfilling the task, each employee is bettering the group. If employees run into any issues or have any gardening questions, they can contact CorpCROP’s “garden genius.” There is a big incentive for employees to help out with the garden — they get to eat the food. “We have both gardening and social activities,” Klafin says. “The people who are working on the garden go out there with social activities then come back and post it so that other organizations can see what they’re doing. We add that element of fun in addition to the wellness.” CorpCROP even monitors how well the program is working for the see CORPCROP Page 16
June 19, 2014 15
CORPCROP from Page 15
business. “From the business side we do metrics; we do employee surveys so we can gauge the benefits they’re getting from it,” says Klafin. Founded last year, CorpCROP formed its first partnership with Boulder restaurant The Riverside. Even though they aren’t using the standard garden schematic, they are still reaping the benefits of growing their own food. “We did one garden installation last fall at The Riverside in downtown Boulder,” says Klafin. “It’s not our traditional model — their chef is actually taking care of the garden and using the food in the café.” “What [CorpCROP is] doing for the community is just fantastic,” says David Nestler, general manager of
16 June 19, 2014
food at The Riverside. “They try to keep everything local and fresh and organic. Then they volunteer their time to help people get started. I think it’s an amazing group.” When asked about the chef’s thoughts on his CorpCROP experience, Nestler says it gives him “a little bit of peace of mind each day to go out and tend to the herbs and plants.” “It gives me a real joy to be involved with other like-minded people,” says Nestler. “I look forward to a future together with [CorpCROP].” Their newest partnership is with Elevations Credit Union, where they just put in a garden earlier this month at the local credit union’s headquarters on 55th Street in Boulder.
“CorpCROP reached out to Elevations last year and we were able to invite them to our annual health fair,” says Dennis Paul, assistant vice president of Elevations. “The goal was to gauge interest from the staff and clearly there was plenty. From there we decided to pursue an onsite garden.” Elevations Credit Union has a strong focus on providing cooperative activities for their employees while keeping them active. For this company, bringing in CorpCROP just made sense. “Team building and employee engagement is really the root to this, which is why we thought CorpCROP would be a great partner: active employees partnering with each other on great initiatives,” says Paul. “We
are very optimistic that it’s going to be a fun initiative for the summer for our group.” While they have only signed two clients so far, CorpCROP has big aspirations to go worldwide. “Right now we’re starting here in Colorado and Arizona and we’re trying to get in California,” says Klafin, “Our vision is to have this go first nationally and then globally.” Keeping money local is a big part of CorpCROP’s mission. “The goal is to find local companies and philanthropic organizations to partner with for each garden installation,” says Klafin. “We totally focus on utilizing local resources,” says Klafin. “Sustainable in every way. That’s our grand vision.” Respond: info@boulderganic.com
Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
September 11-15 BOULDER - DENVER
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Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
Reinventing the toilet
University of Colorado team uses the power of the sun to turn human waste into fuel by Steven Kreimendahl Courtesy of the University of Colorado
K
arl Linden and his research roughly 1.5 million team are not children each year. reinventing the Linden’s Sol-Char wheel, but they toilet turns human are trying to reinvent waste into biochar the toilet. and fertilizer utilizing It began several only the power of years ago for Linden, the sun. a professor of enviSolar panels ronmental engineerfocus light onto fiber ing at the University optic cables, which of Colorado Boulder, carry the sunlight to in a class he taught the waste-holding about water sanitachamber, providing tion and hygiene. He heat to create the gave a short assignbiochar. ment about potential Biochar is a highly CU postdoctoral students stand near the solar-thermal toilet they helped design as part of the “Reinvent the Toilet Chalglobal health initiaporous charcoal, lenge” to improve sanitation and hygiene in developing countries. tives. the result of highly “I realized how heated human waste. many great ideas the students came The idea also gained the attention “If you don’t meet their needs, what It can be mixed with soil to increase up with,” Linden says about the stuof the Engineering for Developing you are going to do won’t work.” nutrients and water retention, dent’s responses. Communities Program at the uniAccording to the Gates Founincreasing crop yields and removing A year later, Linden got together versity, as it applies engineering skills dation website, 2.5 billion people carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, with environmental engineering prowhile learning about social, political worldwide don’t have access to safe, from the atmosphere. Biochar can fessor R. Scott Summers and chemiand sustainability aspects of the work affordable and sustainable toilets. also be burned for fuel like traditional cal and biological engineering profesthey do, which Linden said are not “Urban areas have sewers,” says charcoal. sor Al Weimer to submit a grant learned in the regular engineering Michael Hoffmann, the James Irvine According to the World Health proposal to the Bill & Melinda Gates program. professor of environmental science Organization, every $1 investment Foundation’s Reinvent the Toilet Linden received the first grant at the California Institute of Technolto improved sanitation has a return Challenge, which asked researchers in 2012 for $770,000, along with a ogy, “but that requires a huge subof $5 to $28 in social and economic around the world to create toilets second grant in 2013 for $1 million surface infrastructure and electricity benefits due to increased productivthat sterilize human waste without from the Gates Foundation to further for pumps and aeration.” ity, reduced healthcare costs, and outside electricity, sewer or water develop the toilet. Without proper waste sanitapreventing illness, disability and early sources — all for less than 5 cents “You need an assessment of what tion, food and water tainted with death. per user per day. the community wants,” says Linden. fecal matter results in the deaths of see SOLAR TOILET Page 20 Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
June 19, 2014 19
Courtesy of the University of Colorado
University of Colorado Boulder Professor Karl Linden holds biochar, one of the end products of his self-contained Sol-Char toilet. SOLAR TOILET from Page 19
Working with the Gates Foundaalso received a grant from the Reintion is “totally unlike any organization vent the Toilet Challenge in 2012.The that provides funding for the univerCaltech toilet turns human waste sity,” says Linden. “Usually your goal into fertilizer and hydrogen. The hyis not to build something.” drogen can be used as fuel to power “We’re not trying to beat somehydrogen fuel cells. one else out,” Linden says about the Hoffmann has been working on Gates Foundation challenge, “It’s a semi-conductor systems, the main pretty high order to meet.” component of his team’s toilet, for Linden said the Gates Foundation over 30 years. Courtesy of the University of Colorado is not looking for “I had that vision one team to make for a long time,” says the perfect toilet, Hoffman on utilizing rather research a his semi-conductor variety of ideas and research. “I was just solutions to sanitawaiting for the right tion. application to come Linden — and along.” on average 12 other Hoffmann has professors, graduate received continuand undergraduate ing grants from the students — have Gates Foundation, been working on the along with support project since Sepfrom kitchen and tember 2012. This bathroom manufacThe reactor of the Sol-Char group is much larger toilet focuses sunlight to heat a turer Kohler Co. He chamber to over 600 degrees than the average currently has two Fahrenheit, where human waste is two- to three-perunits open to the turned into biochar. son groups Linden public, one undernormally sees. going testing in “I love the project because it’s Aminabad, India, and another on the so challenging,” says Elizabeth Travis, Mahatma Gandhi University campus a research assistant who is working in Kottayam, India. toward a master’s degree in the engiAs for Linden and his team, they neering college’s Mortenson Center in recently attended the Reinvent the Engineering for Developing Communi- Toilet Fair 2014 in New Dehli, India ties. “You’re forced to meet these chal- to showcase a working prototype of lenges within a specific time frame.” their Sol-Char toilet. Hoffmann and his team at CalTech While the toilet successfully pro20 June 19, 2014
Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
Courtesy of the University of Colorado
The CU Boulder team that created the Sol-Char toilet says their next goal is to make the toilet “less flashy,” reducing the possibility of theft and making it safer for people to have at their homes.
cessed synthetic human waste into biochar, it did fall short on meeting costs for a single house, says Linden, but did meet the goal for communal use. This summer is a turning point in Linden’s research and development. The Gates Foundation grant is due to last until September, and Linden says he and his team would “love” to continue to work on the many challenges still facing the Sol-Char toilet. “The next goal is how cheap can we make it,” says Linden. “It’s too flashy,” says Linden, about the solar panels. Reducing the flashiness and streamlining the design will deter theft, making it safer for users to have at their residence. Linden said he would also like to see the toilet be usable in areas of lower sunshine and have the entire process of waste sanitation shortened from its current 24-hour timeframe. Linden is pursuing several different options for the Sol-Char toilet. He is looking for another Gates Foundation grant recipient to team up with, or other existing projects going on, such as Sanergy, a Kenya-based, large-scale Porta potty system, to integrate the on-site sanitation process. Linden also said he is in contact with national parks in Colorado and outdoors companies to provide the Sol-Char toilets in the Rocky mountain region. While the future of the Sol-Char toilet remains uncertain, Linden said it is still important at this point to refine the research and prepare it for publication, allowing other organizations and research groups to access the information. While Linden hopes to continue improving the Sol-Char toilet, he says the research is still an important step in “pushing the envelope on what’s out there.” Respond: info@boulderganic.com Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
WATERSHED SCHOOL College Preparatory Grades 6-12
EDUCATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE The World is Our Classroom
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June 19, 2014 21
Nothing but net-zero
One Boulder County residence just took energy efficiency to a new level by Haley Gray
Haley Gray
B
oulder County’s most energy efficient home sits at 6712 Jay Road. The residence, to be completed within a year, is expected to produce 29 percent more energy than it consumes using a combination of solar, wind and geothermal systems. The owners of the home set out to build a “demonstration project,” to show what is possible in terms of net-zero energy building in Boulder County, according to Kevin O’Donnell, president of Beck Building. Sparn Architects and Beck Building worked together on the Jay Road house to design the most efficient house possible. This project includes south-facing When completed, the residence at 6712 Jay Road is expected to produce 29 percent windows to let in light during the more energy than it consumes, making it the most energy efficient home in Boulder winter, glass that is engineered to County. tint itself in the summer to limit light coming in, and a smart lighting 2006 energy codes. are essentially running the electric system that shuts itself off when not “We tend to first design a meter backwards,” says Sparn. in use. The owners of the property highly energy efficient home or high Boulder County considers reducare also considering using the land performance building, a building that tions of the amount of energy used for sustainable agriculture, according minimizes heat loss and heat gain,” essential in terms of reducing greento O’Donnell. says Stephen Sparn of the architechouse gas emissions. When Boulder “What was really great about ture firm behind the project. “By County began working towards being able to work on this project is starting with that, you’re reducing reducing emissions in compliance that our client is incredibly interested your energy pie really small.” with the Kyoto Protocol in 2005, inefin pursuing all of these avenues and But even if the home is highly efficiency in existing buildings revealed having them,” O’Donnell says. ficient and capable of producing more itself as the worst offender in terms According to O’Donnell, the energy than it consumes, it is still of energy consumption. project, a sprawling and architecturultimately dependent on the grid. “As we looked at that, it became ally austere home in a semi-rural cor“It will draw energy if necessary. clear that if you were serious about ner of Boulder County, achieved an The problem with the alternative needing to reduce emissions, you expected energy rating of “plus-49” sources of energy is they’re not tied both needed to figure out how you before even considering the addition to any storage system unless you accould get improvements to existing of renewable energy sources. This tually design it, so we can feed energy buildings and you needed to make means the home is 51 percent more back into the grid and draw back sure as new construction took place, energy efficient than homes built to from the grid when we need it. We that you were building new buildings 22 June 19, 2014
that were far greener, far more energy efficient and made greater use of renewable energy, and that’s really where the conversation around Build Smart came from,” says Will Toor, former mayor of Boulder and a former Boulder County commissioner, who worked on the Jay Road project. Build Smart is now Boulder County’s building code. Adopted into Boulder County building codes in 2008 by County Commissioner Cindy Domenico and then-county commissioners Ben Pearlman and Toor, Build Smart aims to reduce emissions both produced by residences themselves as well as the amount of materials sent to landfills, conservation of water and other resources during construction, and insurance of proper air quality in the residence. “We had our staff and consultants take a look at how far could we push energy performance in new construction such that the incremental cost of the construction, if wrapped into a typical mortgage, the incremental increase would be equal to expected decrease in utility bills. And that’s how we set the based standard for all homes. ...We then built in the requirement that as homes got larger, because they would be using more energy, they would have to get more efficient,” says Toor. Currently, any new homes of 6,000 square feet or more must achieve an energy rating of zero or less, that is, they must be capable of achieving net-zero energy use.
Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
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Boulder’s Build Smart building codes are among the most aggressive in the country for promoting energy efficiency.
Every three years building codes are reconsidered and improved. In 2012, Boulder County set the intention to continue intensifying efficiency requirements such that by 2022 all new homes in Boulder County will be required to achieve a minimum of net-zero energy consumption. Build Smart is among the most aggressive building codes in the country in terms of energy efficiency, according to Boulder County Land Use Sustainability Examiner Ron Flax. A crucial factor in the development of the green building industry in Boulder and along the Front Range has been the Colorado Green Building Guild. The guild was founded in 2004 when a group of industry professionals decided to take it upon themselves to create more stringent efficiency requirements than what was then required by the City of Boulder’s Green Points Program. “Everyone was able to come together and start talking about these conversations, how do we build better? ... It’s a systems process and a systems approach and it’s got to be integrated. And so the guild allowed for these conversations to start happening, allowed for education where professionals were sharing with other professionals,” says Flax. “If you took Build Smart and just dropped it on
a new community, they wouldn’t be able to succeed because contractors don’t know how to build like that, material suppliers don’t understand materials choices, how they differ, they don’t have energy raters and design professionals. And the realtors need to be able to understand what people are buying.” Flax points out that there are many building materials, particularly foams used for insulation, that are marketed as sustainable building materials because they conserve energy in homes, even if their manufacture is extremely energy-intensive. Commitment to knowledge in the private sector is therefore quite important to building truly lowimpact homes. “Thinking historically, at the time we adopted Build Smart there was a fair amount of controversy over it. We heard a fair amount of the doom and gloom that this would be impossible for builders to comply with. And none of that happened,” says Toor. “Instead what we saw is the people in the construction business are smart and adaptable and they figured out how to comply with the rules pretty quickly and in fact what we found out was many builders were going beyond the requirements.” Respond: info@boulderganic.com
Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
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Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
Mallane Dressel
B
oulder’s first food what is carried in the store. co-op, The Second The membership fee is $350, Kitchen, is trying to but with two and half hours make a bigger differof volunteer work a month ence when it comes it’s $135, and because the to quality and sustainability organization has roots with of food distribution, while student participation, the not forgetting their humble student cost break is $100. beginnings. The organizaEach tier of membership altion’s name is a tribute to lows for the participation of those humble begins, when six people per entry. co-founder Sara Brody once “It’s really about the used the second kitchen of trust I have in the other her duplex to house large members of the co-op,” says sacks of grains and other Laura Brunner, a member products for it’s first few who joined this January. “I years as a buy-in club. know that I don’t have to be Sara Brody, co-founder of The Second Kitchen food co-op in Boulder, says their mission is to create a Brody understands that the only one person on the community around food buying that reconnects people with the source of their food. in order to make a more island doing all the research substantial difference in on my own. Members are the food industry, the food able to fill you in on where cooperative has to become certain products come more accessible to the pubfrom. This allows for you, lic. But at the same time, she as a member, to access the also wants to hold true to knowledge of the whole the founding member’s initial community.” reasons for creating the club Brunner is a student and by Mallane Dressel in the first place, which was a mother, living just a few the concept of creating a blocks away from the store, community dedicated around food club, where each household contribaround really good food, to educate who joined because of accessibility. mindfulness and quality. uted money to buy in bulk to get a their members on where and how She believes that doing a few hours The idea of creating a food co-op cost break on locally sourced food. the food was being produced, and of volunteer work is a reasonable in Boulder started bubbling in Bro“Our mission then, and it is still to create an excitement about this exchange for the 20 percent disdy’s mind after she attended a contoday, is to create a community knowledge in order to create change. count she receives on quality food as ference called the Real Food Camaround food buying due to the fact This dedication to community is why a member. paign in Montana, which promoted that people are so disconnected the founders decided to transition Because the store does not local food consumption on college from knowing where their food into a public co-op; opening their have the diversity in products and campuses. She bounced around the comes from and how it gets to storefront on the corner of 9th produce of larger stores, Brunner idea with two of her friends, Beth them,” says Brody. Street and College Avenue to anyone, contributes to the co-op community Burzynski and Sabina Bastias. A year According to Brody, the club’s not just members, on Sept. 5, 2013. by submitting recipes that only use later the three co-founders got 18 goal was not just to find a more Members pay a fee that makes the products available in the store. households together in order to sustainable way to acquire their food, them partial owners of the business, make their first purchases as a buy-in but to share and create a community allowing them to make decisions on see KITCHEN Page 26
A community mission
The Second Kitchen food co-op expands fast without forgetting why they started in the first place
Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
June 19, 2014 25
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Members of The Second Kitchen co-op pay a fee that makes them partial owners of the business, allowing them to make decisions about what’s carried in the store. KITCHEN from Page 25
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“If we don’t have an ingredient, amount of waste they created everythen we’ll assist in finding an alterna- day by throwing out produce. tive,” says Brody. “For some people “Hopefully people can respect it’s hard because cooking is so daunt- that we’re not Whole Foods,” says ing anyway, but we provide a certain Kroeker. “We are not going to have amount of encouragement, and that huge stacks of produce because has to do with the relationships that that’s how waste is created. It’s the are built through Susan France first defense line the co-op memagainst waste, bership.” not ordering as Having memmuch. Instead, bers volunteer we order more allows the co-op frequently, to have a small and know our paid staff of sources in order three, which to make sure it permits the is the freshest organization to possible.” keep costs down Brody says in that respect, that she has had but it’s harder to learn quickly in other areas. when it comes For instance, to distributthey don’t get ers, considering the price cut that that they have bigger stores get branched out Meghan Sonn, local resident, shops at for larger purfrom 50 to 1,000 Second Kitchen Food Co-op. chases, but the items in less than smaller purchasa year’s time. es is what keeps the co-op’s waste “I do all the food purchasing and amount down to a minimum. Leigh order as needed,” says Brody. “It’s Kroeker, the first ever paid emstrategic in making sure we have no ployee of the co-op, had the experiwaste.” ence of working for Whole Foods Brody actually grew up on a previously, and one of her reasons sustainable farm, giving her some for leaving the larger grocer was the knowledge on what questions to ask Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
Susan France
Mallane Dressel
Monique Cole, ready to help customers at The Second Kitchen food co-op
the distributers about their products. She expects details in their answers to help her determine if they are “green washing” — painting the picture of sustainability without actually using sustainable practices. Her strictness on quality allows her to maintain her loyalty to some of the farms that have supported the organization since the very beginning, such as Jodar Farms, owned by Aaron Rice, which is now one of Second Kitchen’s two egg suppliers. While the co-op has grown so much that Jodar Farms can’t always meet the demand for eggs, Brody says they still use the farm as a supplier because of the quality of its product. “We do what we say we are doing,” says Rice. “We actually do provide the chickens with free range pastures, giving them access to bugs and compost pile. When you actually do those things, the chickens are able to eat what they want, a more diverse diet that will eventually lead to better eggs.” It’s this dedication to quality that has built lasting relationships that allow the co-op store front to carry specialty items, such as Oxford Garden cucumbers and exclusive Shamane’s bake shop pastries. The co-op has even seen some products take off after starting in their store, such as Jackson Chips. Jackson Chips, which is now carried in hundreds of stores, is still hand deliver to the co-op. Brody values this respect and closeness displayed by distributors and the members of the co-op and she believes that these relationships are the greatest contributors to the buy-in club’s success. Respond: info@boulderganic.com
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Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
c o j a c k s . c o m June 19, 2014 27
Susan France
Corey Vaden, an employee of Green Garage in Boulder, in the area used to store tires that will be hauled away for recycling.
One man’s trash is another man’s business venture
New state legislation aims to clean up and close Colorado’s tire dumps while stimulating the market for recycling by Scott Fromberg
N
ortheast of Denver in the small town of Hudson lies the largest tire dump in the U.S., known by many as Tire Mountain. Immediately south of Colorado Springs sits the nation’s second largest tire dump. Combined, the Rubber Manufacturing Association says, Colorado’s tire dumps, known as monofills, accounted for 40 percent of the nation’s waste tires in 2011 — an estimated 60 million tires.
28 June 19, 2014
While Colorado’s heaps of scrap tires have been seen as fire hazards and breeding grounds for vermin and virus-spreading mosquitoes, they may also be a valuable source of reusable material and business potential. A new state bill aims to clean up and close Colorado’s tire dumps and develop high-value markets for waste tires. Colorado’s House Bill 1352, which was signed into law on June 6, requires waste tire monofills to stop taking tires by Jan. 1, 2018
and to completely clean up and close by Jan. 1, 2024. Until then, tire dumps are only allowed to take in one new tire for every two recycled. The bill provides oversight and management for the waste tire process from point of waste to end-use, when tires are transformed into commercial or industrial products. This requires Colorado’s monofills to speed up their recycling process by either contracting with local recyclers or doing it themselves.
Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
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The bill enjoyed bipartisan sponsorship across the House and Senate. State Sen. Nancy Todd (DArapahoe), who heads the Transportation Committee, was one of the co-sponsors of the legislation. “I think finally people said, ‘Instead of us just piling them up, let’s figure out ways to be more productive,’” Todd says. “We’re hoping that this might be the final waste tire bill that we need to run.“ But not everyone agrees that the bill will be effective, since this isn’t the first time Colorado has tried to use legislation to clean up its tire problem. “Back in 2009, HB 289 required that the monofills be emptied by 2019. I think the new legislation is going to be viewed and handled just like the old. I don’t think it’s feasible,” says Lonnie Houtchens, president and owner of American Tire Exchange. “Ownership will be shuffled, people will be given more time and exceptions. That’s what has been happening since 1992 [or] 1994. No matter what the law says — either state or local — the monofills rarely adhere to it and are given extensions.” The new legislation requires that waste tires be reused in a way that is not harmful to human health or the environment. Some beneficial uses include mixing them with asphalt pavement or chopping them into mulch for gardens or playgrounds. They can be recycled as an aggregate in concrete or processed for devulcanization, which separates the chemical bonds within the tire and restores it back to its original rubber state. “Either grind them up and reuse them into feed stock or shred them, crumble them or use them for abates for carpeting; you know, the padding of the carpeting,” says Todd. “Use them for asphalt or for playgrounds — actually use them instead of letting
them just pile up.” “The new legislation will be promoting some new products of ours like crum rubber,” says Rick Welle, president and owner of Front Range Tire Recycle. “It will be slowing down some of the old markets we had for tires — in a whole it is a fairly good bill. To decrease and stop the monofills from growing is a very good thing for the recycling industry.” CH2E, the company that owns Tire Mountain, plans to melt tires to produce diesel fuel and a type of steel. Magnum d’Or, which previously owned Tire Mountain, created a stir among lawmakers when owner Joseph Glusic was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for using state tire recycling subsides to participate in unlawful stock activities. “The monofills have new owners showing much more promise — responsible owners that have new innovative business plans on the books,” says Charles Johnson, program manager with the Solid Waste and Materials Program with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “We met privately with these folks. Should their plans come to fruition, they will be using almost double the amount of waste tires on an annual basis. That has two really strong impacts. It will continue to help utilize all the new, generated waste tires, and it will help utilize waste tires that are being stored in a giant warehouse. The change of ownership from Magnum to CH2E has brought on new business partners into that facility and yes, they actually will have great opportunities to recycle significantly more tires.” A prevailing theory is that more
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tires are wasted than recycled. This leads to the perception that if the monofills close, recycling centers and illegal dumping sites will be overloaded with waste tires. However, according to Johnson, “two years ago we used more waste tires than we generated new ones.” There are many recycling centers around the Front Range aching for an increase in waste tires to recycle. “We’re running out of tires for the recycling process because we’re doing so well recycling, so we welcome the influx of the legally generated tires coming to us to be recycled instead of going to the monofills to just be stockpiled,” says Welle with Front Range Tire Recycler. Teresa Immel from Colorado Tire Recycling in Denver hired a lobbyist to support her interests in the bill. “Everyone knew this bill was coming up, so the state started
holding stakeholder meetings last summer,” Immel says. “And while it wasn’t everything for everyone — it never is — I think, as a group, there was a lot of give and take. Whenever there’s money involved you really see what people support. The legislators tried to do this bill justice and I believe this was a good outcome of a lot of good things.” Besides attempting to implement streamlined recycling legislation, there are other measures of HB 1352. Starting Jan. 1, 2018, state tire tax at point of purchase will drop from $1.55 to $0.55 and the state will distribute the revenue of the lowered tax to three new funds. The funds focus on compensating the end user, encouraging market development and providing money to the newly created Waste Tire Administration and Enforcement Cleanup Fund. The WTAECF will inspect tire retailers to make sure the fee is being
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collected and will support the hiring of a contractor to clean up illegal waste tire dumps according to the provisions in the bill. “There’s illegal tire dumps all over the state. Some of the illegal dumps are usually farm land or some are over in the mountains where no one would see them,” Immel says. The new legislation provides funding for cleanup of illegal tire dumps along with funding to train personnel to utilize better waste tire management techniques that are more suitable to the health of the environment and people. Under other statutes of the bill, waste tire haulers must store no more than 1,000 tires at a time and waste tire generators must contain no more than 1,500 waste tires at any given moment. Waste tire generators would include places where tires finally come off the vehicles and begin the process of recycling.
“Rubber Manufacturers Association has advocated changes to Colorado’s scrap tire program for years and we look forward to working with officials to implement the legislation once the Governor signs it,” Dan Zielinski, public relations specialist for Rubber Manufacturers Association, said in an email. Both Johnson and Immel say they believe HB 1352 is a great first step to reducing Colorado’s tire stockpiles in an environmentally friendly way and creating a sustainable free market of tire recycling. “We have seen other states dumping — we’ve become kind of a dumping ground in Colorado,” Todd says. “So, I think people are saying, ‘We need to put a stop to that and we need to figure out a better use and how we can address those issues.’ We don’t need to be using our beautiful land to just fill it with trash.” Respond:info@boulderweekly.com
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Three Leaf Farm is part of Three Leaf Concepts, a locally owned farm to table restaurant group including: The Chautauqua Dining Hall, The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant, Aji Latin American Restaurant, The Naropa Cafe, The Huckleberry, Zucca Italian Ristorante, and Three Leaf Catering.
Locally Sourced Farm Fresh Products 32 June 19, 2014
Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
Wikimedia Commons/Christopher Johnson
Ignoring physical pain can exacerbate an injury, but athletes should also pay attention to their emotional state as they heal.
Playing hurt
Why ignoring injuries leads to more trouble by James Dziezynski
A
few years back, I broke my left thumb during an ultimate Frisbee game. Four days later, I broke my right thumb playing volleyball. Ever try turning a key in a lock without your thumbs? I genuinely felt less evolved with my opposable digits temporarily out of service. Many people identify strongly with their favorite sports. Because of that passion — or obsession — we get used to playing hurt. It’s not unusual to see
Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
people scaling the walls at the climbing gym with a soft cast on their leg or watching runners zip around trails with their arm in a sling. It is difficult for driven athletes to let a little pain get in the way of a good time. Dr. Sonya Black of Rocky Mountain Family Medicine in Denver is all too familiar with athletes who try to come back from injuries too quickly. “Almost any athletic person will return to their activity too soon. It’s
part of their makeup,” says Black. “They don’t feel themselves if they aren’t able to do the exercise and activities that they love. I give the same speech to everyone: It’s so much better to miss a few weeks of activity letting an injury heal properly the first time rather than pushing it and dragging it out for months or years.” Somewhat ironically, she adds, “After see SPORTS INJURY Page 34
June 19, 2014 33
Wikimedia Commons/Eckhard Pecher
Dr. Sonya Black of Rocky Mountain Family Medicine in Denver says that many injuries feel better before they are fully healed, leading to errors in judgment and further injuries. SPORTS INJURY from Page 33
eight knee surgeries, I’m a prime example of someone that didn’t take that advice. The most important person besides the patient when it comes to an injury recovery is the physical therapist. They teach people how to recover from this injury and how to strengthen their body to avoid the same injury in the future.” Most of us, upon being told to rest six to eight weeks, will translate that into “six weeks of rest” and possibly even, “Six weeks is about a month, I’ll give it 30 days.” Many injuries will feel much better before they are fully healed, leading to errors in judgment. “Another mistake athletes commonly make is not asking detailed questions about recovery,” says Black. “The ortho[pedic doctor] may have thought they were clear about the plan, but often patients have no idea when they can stop using their crutches, or when to do range of motion exercises at home, or when to walk or run again. It’s also important to ask and have a follow up plan for a setback with the injury. Often people don’t know what to do if they were cleared by their doctor or therapist to return to activity, but then the pain returns.” Since most of us are bad patients, I asked Black what are the most important things to remember when 34 June 19, 2014
dealing with an injury. Here’s her advice: “I tell patients that you have to take care of the whole body, not just the injury. Without proper sleep, the body can’t heal. Let pain be part of the measure of how fast to move back into activity. If it hurts, don’t do it. Most injuries that occur to the knee, ankle, back, et cetera, need a period of lessened impact or stress, but still need movement. We no longer tell back pain patients to stay still; movement loosens the muscles and actually decreases the pain. If you tell an active person to be stagnant because they are recovering from an injury, the rest of their body, but more importantly their mental health, suffers. It’s always best to modify or find another activity to keep active people moving and feeling strong.” Which brings up the other component of healing: the mental side. With proper rest, physical damage will heal itself but the emotional toll on injured athletes may be more troubling than the injury itself. Dr. Julie Emmerman, a clinical sport psychotherapist, reminds athletes that the mental aspect of healing is just as important. “It is easier for people to feel legitimate about the physical pain they’re enduring whereas express-
Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
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ing emotional pain often leaves one feeling vulnerable to judgment,� says Emmerman. “In addition, our culture has for many years been accepting and compassionate regarding physical pain. We see the injuries; we can relate on some level or imagine what it might feel like. Attention to emotional struggles that often coincide with severe physical injury has only gained wider attention and interest from the public in the last roughly 15 years. Therefore, many individuals don’t even realize they are neglecting their psychological care until later.� In order to get into the proper state of mind to heal, Emmerman suggests confronting the reality of the injury and finding empowering ways to work through it. “It is important to feel the losses incurred: the anger, disappointment, shock, disbelief and sadness at and eventual acceptance of what is,� explains Emmerman. “Depending on an individual’s personal history, circumstances and severity of injury, this will take variable amounts of time, and patience is required by not just the athlete but their supports. I encourage athletes to learn as much as they can about what led to the injury — lack of focus, dehydration, mechanical issue, another athlete — and develop constructive take-aways with the aim of applying those lessons forward when the athlete is back to
full functioning.� The final phase of healing for most athletes is playing the sports they love at their previous levels. This can be the most difficult part of the healing process for many. “The biggest mistake I see people make is minimizing their experience and being their own worst critic,� says Emmerman. “[They think,] ‘Oh man, I used to do this so easily.’ There is a time and place for easing back into technical cornering on a bike, for example, and there is a time and place to ‘just do it.’ If there is anxiety about returning to the sport, it needs to be addressed properly lest that person is willing to surrender his/her athletic passion. It is important to take a deliberate, time sensitive approach that emphasizes safety, learning/re-learning skills, and works with (not against) the person’s level of fear.� Ultimately, it takes awareness of both the physical and mental states to properly come back from a sports injury. It will take patience, but those aiming to heal the “right way� will be able to redirect those frustrations and make them part of the healing process. No competitive person likes being on the sidelines. Taking a smart approach to the entire healing process is key in returning efficiently and without lasting damage to the sports you love. Respond: info@boulderganic.com
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Courtesy of Cloud Nine Float Center
Float tanks create an environment that reduces as much sensory input as possible, allowing some people to experience new states of awareness and creativity.
Float tank therapy
Exploring the world of sensory deprivation by James Dziezynski
T
here’s a tricky conundrum for the writer who happens to find himself in the position of crafting an article about sensory deprivation. In order to fully appreciate the intended effects of the session, one has to allow the mind to wander, to turn inward.Yet, journalistic duty requires attention to details, at least enough to be able to accurately recount the experience. And it is certainly interesting to be part of a story where the majority of the research would be done in the nude. Float Tank Therapy is an evolution of principals first espoused by neuro-psychiatrist John C. Lilly. He sought to create an environment that reduced as much
36 June 19, 2014
sensory input as possible to unburden the mind from the constant stimulation that must be filtered in order to function. In 1954 he created his first isolation tanks. Pitch dark and perfectly silent, the tanks provided a sense of weightlessness by adding large amounts of Epsom salt to body-temperature water. Lilly’s efforts to measure brain activity were rooted in hard science and were carried out with clinical precision. While he was able to harvest enough data to validate his theories on brain waves, his experiments strengthened a growing trend of exploring the extreme limits of consciousness. Peter Suedfeld and Roderick Borrie of the University of British Columbia looked
at the therapeutic benefits of float tanks in the 1970s and eventually dubbed their process “Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy,” or REST. Their research had some unexpected results, with patients reporting diminished cravings for alcohol and bouts of uninhibited creativity. For many suffering with painful diseases such as multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia, longlasting relief from joint pain and increased feelings of energy were cited. And now it was my turn in the tank. Danny Clarke, owner of Cloud Nine Float Center in Boulder, generously offered several float sessions. “Float tanks are really a place to relax,” explains Clarke. “There are many proven Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
Wikimedia Commons
Neuro-psychiatrists John C. Lilly created the first isolation tank in 1954 to study brain activity in the absence of sensory input.
benefits to floating — less stress, increased energy and relief from pain. Floating is effective at negating jet lag or simply restoring energy. There are people from all walks who enjoy float sessions and many of our clients come back for repeat visits. It appeals to those seeking both traditional and alternative therapy.” I consider myself a bit leery of many of the claims of alternative medicine, but given isolation tank’s credible scientific lineage, I was intrigued. I purposely saved researching the subject until after a series of floats, as not to taint the experiment. Whether I would feel safely ensconced in a simulated womb, drift through the cosmos or simply churn in salt water for 90 minutes was up in the air. All I knew is the tank itself initially looked intimidating. Thankfully, the attentive staff at Cloud Nine helped ease my fears. The modern tank I would be soaking in was spacious and safe, holding 10 inches of water that would
maintain a steady temperature of 95 degrees, the natural temperature of the skin. The water is filtered and sterilized for each session and overloaded with Epsom salts, which make floating on the water like a cork effortless. There are three large buttons in the chamber: one that controls the hydraulic door, one that turns on and off an inner light, and a call button to communicate with the employee monitoring the session. I admit a bit of apprehension as my mind created worst-case scenarios where the doors locked shut or the air pump mysteriously stopped functioning. These fears were unfounded, however, as the door never actually locks, though it does seal shut with authority. Clients have the option of relaxing music, nature sounds, audio books, whatever you like — though the intended experience is best done in silence. I opted for the standard procedure of 15 see FLOATATION Page 38
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FLOATATION from Page 37
minutes of music that would gradually fade into silence, then two minutes of calming music at the conclusion of the 90-minute session. The inner light would turn on and the door would automatically open at the end. One small bit of advice: if you have swimming earplugs, it’s a good idea to bring them. The float center provides foam earplugs and an earwash solution for after the session, but I found my rubber swimming earplugs to work best. Also, try your best not to touch your face in the
tank, the salt water in your eyes will burn with the heat of a thousand suns (though there is a squirt bottle of fresh water and a towel in the tank with you). After showering, I stepped naked into the tank. The initial sensation of floating on the water was unexpected and neat. By keeping your arms out to the side, you can stabilize your float and many experience weightlessness. While you have the option of keeping the door open (all the way or just a crack), I summoned a bit of
Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
Courtesy of Cloud Nine Float Center
Award winning, full service veterinary hospital, offering the best in modern veterinary medicine along with a variety of alternative medical options. Committed to fostering the special bond between people and their furry family members. The trick, so to speak, of a sensory deprivation float is to completely relax — the high concentration of salt prevents the body from flipping over, even if you fall asleep.
journalistic courage and let the large tank door close tightly. With one more deep breath, I turned off the inner light and tried to relax. At first, my mind raced. I nudged up against the sidewalls a bit as my body reflexively tried to use the mechanics of normal water density to float. The trick of course is to fully relax — you can’t unintentionally flip over in the tank, even if you fall asleep. It took a while to relax my neck enough to let my head yield to the natural floating power of the salt water. It didn’t take long to find a comfortable position, though I was aware I was floating on water and could still hear the peaceful music. I had the sensation not so much of being weightless but more so like I was drifting along in a river. A few times, I expected to bump into the side of the tank, the sensation was so vivid. And perhaps I was starting to feel a little bored. But then I began to drift closer to sleep. What happened next was unexpected and fairly remarkable: Since sleep was looming in the dark and quiet tank, my mind went to its normal pre-sleep places: I’m playing major league baseball, or I’m the guitar player for Rush, or winning the lottery — standard issue fantasy land stuff. But rather than fall completely asleep, my brain took a wonderful, lucid detour to that place just before sleep where controlled thoughts slip away and the brain hovers between
awareness and the subconscious. It was a familiar sensation and one I welcomed on nights when sleep was momentarily interrupted or on mornings where vivid dreams seemed to come in waves, closer to the surface of my consciousness rather than buried deep in REM sleep. I hesitate to say I had visions, but there were sensations of things I enjoyed: running alongside my dogs (at their speed for once), mountain biking difficult trails with ease — both somewhat float-like sensations. And there were friends, some not thought of for years, drifting into my mind and I began crafting beautiful, unfiltered and bold letters to them in my thoughts. These were all somewhat normal musings for me, but they came more vividly and less inhibited. I could not choose how they came or who appeared. And it was wonderful. What had felt like a lengthy stay in the tank turned into a meditation, broken by the automatic opening of the tank door. I certainly hadn’t had any sort of hallucinations (as some report) but my mind had definitely gone into some fascinating places — and stayed there long enough that I could enjoy it. And I objectively felt … better. Rested, sharper, my mind a bit quicker and more focused. Almost like caffeine without the jitters or anxiety. As it turns out, that place I
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Boulder Weekly Boulderganic Summer ’14
June 19, 2014 39
Courtesy of Cloud Nine Float Center
A floatation tank visit can generate the same type of brainwave activity that arises when on the edge of consciousness. FLOATATION from Page 39
described as being on the conscious threshold of sleep is measured by science as being in a theta brainwave pattern. “I’m glad you were able to experience that,” says Clarke. “There are some who consider that stage theta brainwave activity, though the sensations are relative to the person who is feeling it. I’m reluctant to call it that, though there are studies that do consider theta brainwave activity to be the state you described.” It is worth mentioning that I got “better” at floating after the first session and that repeat visits are not a gimmick to make more money — the experience is enhanced as you get used to the tank itself. Of the friends I spoke with who had been in float tanks, nearly all had a positive experience. The effects I felt weren’t 40 June 19, 2014
necessarily profound, but there was a noticeable spike in uninhibited thoughts, improved energy and creative motivation — and it felt pretty good. The next time I cross several time zones, I hope to revisit the tanks to see if they can alleviate jet lag. Because my own skeptical concerns were countered with a genuinely pleasing experience, I’m willing to give it a try. Floating can be a bit weird at first, maybe a little scary and perhaps boring at times, but I can’t deny my mind did wander in wonderful ways. Perhaps the brain appreciates the opportunity to let go of all the grunt work and illuminate some of the dusty, forgotten places that it can normally only visit in the deep sanctuary of sleep. Respond: info@boulderganic.com
Boulderganic Summer ’14 Boulder Weekly
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Did you know your flooring choices can help make our world a better place? beautiful bamboo, tile, hardwoods and carpet that meet our earth-friendly standards. For aSELECT free room measure andincluding financing pre-approval visitrenewable CarpetOne.com. THREE EASY WAYS TO for SHOP. Look floors with our GREEN LABEL, naturally FrEE FrEE Pre-Measures Pre-Measures And And Estimates Estimates Follow Follow us: us:cork, GUARANTEE A GREEN COMMITMENT beautiful bamboo, tile, hardwoods and carpet that meet earth-friendly standards. * onour In addition to providing of Green Select ® ® products, we are for our customers with a wide selection any new floor FLOOR FLOOR also committed to taking action in our stores and communities to actively make the world a & HOME & HOME * cleaner responsible any floor CARPET • HARDW O O Dand•healthier V I N Yplace. L • We T Ifeel Lfor E this • isLan A important M I N ATpart E •of being A N Don M O Rnew E citizens. 6367 6367 arapahoe arapahoe ave. ave. ◆ Boulder ◆ Boulder ◆ 303-449-0011 ◆ 303-449-0011 ◆ www.carpetone.com ◆ www.carpetone.com IN-STORE
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*On all products. Subject to credit approval. Financing provided by CitiFinancial Retail Services Division of Citicorp Trust Bank, fsb. Finance charges begin to accrue at the time of purchase. No monthly payments required during the promotional period. Payment of amount financed in full must be received prior to the expiration of the promotional period in order for accrued finance charges to be waived. Otherwise, accrued finance charges will be assessed to the account. Standard rate 24% APR. Default rate 26.99% APR. Minimum finance charge $.50. See Cardholder Agreement for details. Available for a limited time only at participating dealers. See store for details. Not responsible for typographical errors. Not all products available at all locations. Photos for demonstration purposes only. †See actual warranties at store for details. ©Carpet One Floor & Home 2007
Green Flooring Half Page 11.625X10.5
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We are making a green commitment in our9:30am-5pm stores and offices by focusing on educating our ◆LSunday C A R P EMonday-Friday T Monday-Friday • H A R D9:30am-6pm; W 9:30am-6pm; O O D • Saturday V ISaturday N Y L9:30am-5pm • T I L E ◆•Sunday A M11am-4pm I N11am-4pm AT E • A N D M O R E employees and business partners; conserving resources and reducing waste; and encouraging At participating At participating storesstores only, not only,allnot products all products at all locations. at all locations. PhotosPhotos for illustrative for illustrative purposes purposes only. Not only.responsible Not responsible for typographical for typographical errors.errors. offersoffers cannotcannot be combined be combined with other with other discounts discounts or o recycling and green practices. promotional promotional offersoffers and are and not arevalid noton valid previous on previous purchases. purchases. ©Carpet ©Carpet onemaintenance Floor one Floor & Home®. & Home®. *See store *See for store details. for details. Subject Subject to credit to credit approval. approval. †See actual †See actual warranty warranty at store at for store complete for complete details. details
Greystone
Trussville
2827 Greystone Comm. Blvd. PHONE: 991-1082
1465 Gadsden Hwy. PHONE: 655-8777
Greystone
2827 Greystone Comm. Blvd. PHONE: 991-1082
EASY WAYS TO SHOP.
Vestavia
1432 Montgomery Hwy. PHONE: 822-4334
Trussville
1465 Gadsden Hwy. PHONE: 655-8777
Vestavia
1432 Montgomery Hwy. PHONE: 822-4334
For a free room measure and financing pre-approval visit CarpetOne.com.
IN-STORE
ONLINE
IN-HOME
LIFETIME INSTALLATION
GUARANTEE
†
edit approval. Financing provided by CitiFinancial Retail Services Division of Citicorp Trust Bank, fsb. Finance charges begin to accrue at the time of purchase. No monthly payments required during the promotional period. Payment of amount financed in full must be received prior to the period in order for accrued finance charges to be waived. Otherwise, accrued finance charges will be assessed to the account. Standard rate 24% APR. Default rate 26.99% APR. Minimum finance charge $.50. See Cardholder Agreement for details. Available for a limited time only at e for details. Not responsible for typographical errors. Not all products available at all locations. Photos for demonstration purposes only. †See actual warranties at store for details. ©Carpet One Floor & Home 2007
THREE EASY WAYS TO SHOP.
For a free room measure and financing pre-approval visit CarpetOne.com.
IN-STORE
ONLINE
L
IN-HOME
*On all products. Subject to credit approval. Financing provided by CitiFinancial Retail Services Division of Citicorp Trust Bank, fsb. Finance charges begin to accrue at the time of purchase. No monthly payments required during the promotional period. Payment of amount financed in full must b
11.625X10.5 ALTERNATE expiration of the4c promotional period in order for accrued finance charges to be waived. Otherwise, accrued finance charges will be assessed to the account. Standard rate 24% APR. Default rate 26.99% APR. Minimum finance charge $.50. See Cardholder Agreement for details. Available for participating dealers. See store for details. Not responsible for typographical errors. Not all products available at all locations. Photos for demonstration purposes only. †See actual warranties at store for details. ©Carpet One Floor & Home 2007
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