Phase I
(2022-2024)

So, starting with the GHGs, how are we doing so far in the first three years of the fund? We did GREAT! We stood up a non-profit, parcelled together a few bucks from local donors, and got branded up (thank you Holly Mandarich). Our Board Chairwoman, through Harvard University, created the most useable and inspiring Net Zero Action Plan that the TOE (or any municipality) could have asked for (thank you Kristen Hartel). We gave the town the courage to launch curbside composting (thank you Vail Honeywagon), built 356 all-electric residential units (thank you Scott T and Scott S), and are now dipping our toes into infrastructure projects (thank you Tom Gos).

Meanwhile, our event boothing and social media have engaged hundreds of new folks in our vision to be NZ2030, brought on two talented interns, and partnered with Eagle County Schools, Walking Mountains, and Active Energies to SOLARbrate. We presented lessons on electrification at the Eagle Valley High School’s AP Government class, hosted trivia with Climate Action Week, and engaged locals with EV Ride’n’Drive events. The Palmer Fund communicated energy bill reductions en espanol at the ReEnergize event at Gardunos and watched as Habitat for Humanity cut the ribbon at their affordable housing development on “Adam’s Way”, Eagle’s newest street name. We even made time for a community ride on Adam’s birthday.

Our NZAP is an awesome plan and we need to stick to it, not allowing shiny stuff to distract us. It calls for a monumental effort from our APSF Team and also the whole community. To help expand the strength of our community partners we recently won an annual commitment from the Town of Eagle to provide $15,000 per year in grants earmarked for direct GHG reductions.  We also institutionalized broader financial support from the town in exchange for standing up a "Sustainability Advisory Committee", which will function similarly to the TOE OSRAC. This is great news and will allow us to work “hand and glove” with Kira Koppel - our newly hired Sustainability Specialist at the Town.  

With the help of Walking Mountains' Climate Action Collaborative, TOE applied for 8 new "Level 2" EV chargers and 8 more "DC Fast" chargers for various commercial locations around town (thank you Gina McCrackin).  This is a nod to our friends at the Eagle Ranch Commercial Corridor, Downtown Development Authority, Eagle Vitality Committee, and the Chamber who have expressed the growing benefits of this infrastructure at their small businesses.  With EVs, we don’t need to lead the market as much as keep pace with it (with adequate charging infrastructure).  If we do NZ well, it will make a noticeable positive impact across the town economy.  This process requires an iterative spirit and there are going to be some big wins for our strategic goals as we navigate the transition to less carbon.  Unfortunately, we lost the grant, but there will be another opportunity in 2025.


Our APSF team was also “front and center” at several crucial CORE Transit meetings - lobbying relentlessly and positively for free bus service for all Eagle residents. Our efforts were rewarded, and bus service routes also doubled to allow for less standing around (thank you Nick Sunday). We anticipate growing partnerships with the Eagle County Conservation District as they look to spend $650,000 per year on Land Use initiatives within the county (congrats Laura Bohannon). We presented for the third year in a row at Mountain Towns 2030 (nice work Laura Hartman), adding our story to a concinnity of inspiring climate solutions across the mountain west.

Even with all the forward progress on the part of the fund, it is the Town of Eagle that has gone zero → hero →  zero in the most impressive way.  Melissa Daruna has been dogged in her efforts to find grants, troubleshoot composting, visioning the most optimal structures, and working closely with Kira and the Green Team at TOE to build fantastic energy within the organization.  We are fortunate to have Larry Pardee from Jackson, and the great people I talk to in Wyoming say that their hearts are sore from his departure.  Our finance team has been creative in leveraging preferred terms for funding big stuff and we are working well as a unit.  Our TOE Council and staff read Auden Schedler’s “Getting Green Done” in 2021, and have copies of “Terrible Beauty” to hand out in January of 2025.  We are building a well-inspired team and we are leading with big heart