Being on the front lines of climate change with the future of our local economies and way of life at stake, our communities have unique and powerful leverage in driving the transition to a clean energy economy.
We’re accelerating progress by connecting peers, sharing best practices and modeling replicable solutions.
Colorado
Colorado
The Town is participating in SMPA’s “Totally Green” program, paying an extra penny per kWh, which supplies us with 100% renewable energy for our entire municipal electric load. It’s a founding member of the Sneffels Energy Board and is actively engaged in its Regional Climate Action Plan. The Regional Plan has a dedicated appendix specific to Ridgway. The Town has formed a Sustainability Advisory Board made up of five volunteer Ridgway residents, as well as an ex-officio member from Town Council. This group has generated numerous work plan items that were approved as part of the Town’s annual budget and Strategic Plan process. Most notably, it is working on supporting the adoption of new model Solar and EV-Ready code updates and drafting a resolution to put before Town Council to establish a formal goal for the Town to go Net Zero for all town facilities by 2030. The Town recently adopted a new Green Street Sustainability Park Master Plan that will eventually see six solar arrays (the largest being a 200 kW Community Solar Garden, owned and operated by the local electric co-op) and five smaller shade solar structures, including a carport with an EV charger.
CALIFORNIA
Despite the challenges of alternative transportation in a small rural mountain town, Truckee has created a comprehensive multi-modal transportation program to expand mobility options, reduce vehicle miles travelled, and support the Town’s GHG emission reduction goals. Truckee’s rural transit system now serves 215,000 passengers per year (an increase of over 500% from just two years ago), including shared microtransit and park-and-ride service to ski resorts, alongside a seasonal bikeshare program that provided over 7,000 trips covering 43,000 miles in just two summers. These will be complemented by a new vanpool pilot program serving commuters from the Reno/Sparks area, which is expected to reduce annual VMT by nearly 2 million miles per year.
Idaho
We are proud to be the leader of the Blaine County Climate Action Network (5B CAN). Rooted in the concept of dynamic governance—we have over 100 community stakeholders participating in our climate action plan implementation, including local students, government leaders and elected officials, businesses, NGOs and community members. Collaboration, consent and an open door are fundamental to our work, and we are thrilled at the outcomes to date. From county and municipal electrification, coordination on grants and program design, and small but notable wins in agriculture and community forestry all the way to policy advisement and achieving a 46% waste diversion rate county-wide—our model uniquely positions us to get a lot done with limited resources. Photo: Grant Nibley
UTAH
Park City ambitious climate goals: to be net-zero carbon and run on 100% renewable electricity by 2030. The town also strives to be zero waste by 2030, and to lead the transition to clean, reliable energy, a healthy environment, and sustainable community resources, including food, water, and housing.
COLORADO
In 2021, the Town of Breckenridge merged its Sustainability and affordable housing efforts by starting construction on the first all-electric net-zero energy housing projects in our community. At the time, many critics said that net-zero buildings were impossible to build in our climate zone and it simply couldn’t be done. Fast forward to fall 2024, residents moved into phase 2 of the Vista Verde workforce housing development. Vista Verde Phases 1 and 2 combined represent 252 workforce rental housing units, serving local residents in the 60-120% AMI range, with over 1.8MW of on-site solar powering the facilities that produce as much energy as they use. Savings from not running natural gas lines out to the site were able to be put towards developing efficient high-performance buildings.
COLORADO
Wyoming
The Town has a current goal to achieve net zero by 2030. The Town produces some of its electricity through solar panels on Town buildings and near our Water Treatment Plant. For the remainder of the municipality’s electricity usage, we purchase 100% green energy from local power company, Lower Valley Energy. Our commitment to green energy supports a certified low-impact hydropower facility on Strawberry Creek near Bedford, Wyoming.
We’ve outlined a climate action framework, a practical set of systemic and achievable solutions focused on what matters most.
And by directly connecting the communities that need help with those who have successfully deployed these solutions, we can streamline project planning and deployment, expediting our collective progress to zero.
Attend the annual gathering of mountain and rural community stakeholders committed to climate action.
OCT 2025
COLORADO
MT2030 relies on the generous support of a growing number of mountain communities and counties that are leading the way, driving the movement to carbon neutrality and setting an example for others to follow.