HISTORY

The history of the ASCP dates back to April of 2004 when student government leaders from the Community College of Denver (CCD), Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSUD), and University of Colorado Denver (UCD) worked together to complete projects that would reduce the campus ecological footprint as well as decrease Auraria’s dependence upon fossil fuels. To accomplish this, a referendum was submitted to the students of Auraria via the Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board (SACAB). The referendum asked whether the students were in favor of authorizing the Board of Directors of the Auraria Higher Education Center (AHEC) to collect a tri-institutional “Clean Energy Fee” of $1 per student per semester. With the students of Auraria voting in favor of the supplemental fee, SACAB’s student government leaders used the referendum’s funding to purchase renewable wind energy credits to offset approximately 45% of Auraria’s annual electricity usage through 2006.

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In the Spring of 2007, the ASCP Advisory Committee of SACAB submitted a referendum to the students of Auraria not only to renew the original Clean Energy Fee, but to enhance it by increasing the fee to $3 for 2008, $4 for 2009, and $5 for 2010. With 96% of the voting student body voting in favor of the referendum, the ASCP was able to offset 100% of campus electricity via renewable wind energy credits and begin funding energy efficiency, water efficiency, waste diversion, and outreach and education projects. Such projects ranged from major lighting and water fixture retrofits in both the PE Center and North Classroom buildings that collectively reduced Auraria’s annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by over 300 metric tons.

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The third iteration of the ASCP’s funding was voted in by students in the Spring 2011 semester via a referendum that continued the $5 fee through the Spring of 2016, which led to the hiring of a full-time Sustainability Officer to lead the program and expanded the program’s focus to include alternative transportation as well as food and garden projects. During this time, student representatives from all three schools approved several sustainability projects such as the Tivoli Station’s LED lighting retrofit that reduced its energy usage by 47%, the installation of a 390 solar panel array on the roof of the arts building, the installation of a weather station on campus to increase the efficiency of its irrigation system, increased bicycle infrastructure in the form of additional bike racks and repair stations, an expansion of campus recycling and composting efforts beyond the Tivoli food court, and the construction of the Connect Auraria Garden on the south side of the Science Building. Collectively, these projects have contributed to reducing the campus ecological footprint by keeping an additional 81 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere every year, saving 3 million gallons of water annually, and increasing the food court’s waste diversion rate to nearly 40%.