Top 5 reasons Colorado is ahead of the clean power curve
From the Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency (4CORE): Southwest Colorado, and Colorado in general, has some advantages as our country pursues clean power alternatives. Here are five of them:
- Colorado's has a Renewable Energy Standard (RES) in place. Legislators recently increased our RES to require electric utilities serving fewer than 100,000 meters to generate or purchase enough renewable energy to supply 10% of their retail electric sales by 2020. This increases up to 30% for investor owned utilities. This action has readied Colorado for policies such as the one proposed by EPA. Likley as a result, Colorado’s grid-connected photovoltaic capacity of 300 megawatts was the fifth largest in the United States in 2012.
- Economic Gain. Increased demand for renewables throughout the US could be a boon for our state's economy, attracting and sustaining companies that build, install and operate wind turbines, solar power equipment, and hydroelectric infrastructure. Colorado already hosts a myriad of such companies who have paved the way for these industries.
- We're on our way. Xcel Energy, which provides service in the Boulder and Greeley areas, has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 19 percent from 2005 levels and aims to achieve a 31 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. Other rural regions, including ours, get power from Tri-state Generation and Transmission, which generates more than half of its electricity from coal-fired power plants. It is unclear how the proposed plan will affect them.
- We've got access to efficiency: Energy efficiency and renewable energy loan programs from the USDA, Federal tax credits for both energy efficiency and renewable upgrades, and incentives from utilities in Southwest Colorado are poised to provide resources to reduce. That means you can contribute by reducing your demand and taking advantage of services such as 4CORE's HomeRx Program, which helps individual households identify and decrease wasted energy.
- Trade Advantage. If Colorado participates in state-based and regional carbon trading, our robust renewable energy portfolio could allow us to participate in a Four Corners carbon trading plan, decreasing the impact of our coal-power plant neighbors to the south.
Further information:
Denver Business Journal
MSNBC
Jon Elliot
Colorado Creative Industries announces call for artists
DENVER - Thurs., July 17, 2014 - Colorado Creative Industries (CCI) is seeking artists to join the State of Colorado Public Art Registry in order to be considered for public art projects in state buildings.
In 2014, CCI will support eight public art projects with a $500,000 budget, and 11 projects in 2015 with nearly $600,000 allocated to the projects. To submit qualifications to join the registry, artists must start a free profile on the online call for entry system at www.callforentry.org by midnight on July 31, 2014. The opportunity is named the State of Colorado Public Art Registry.
The Art in Public Places Program was established by the Colorado Legislature in 1977 to create enjoyment and pride for Coloradans. The public art statute requires an allocation of one percent of capital construction funds for new or renovated state buildings be set aside for the acquisition of works of art at the project site. These art acquisitions form the state art collection and are developed and administered by CCI. The works selected through this program represent great diversity in style, imagery, materials and techniques. By uniting artists, architecture and host institutions, public art integrates the art experience into the built environment and civic spaces.
For more information, please contact Deana Miller at deana.miller@state.co.us.
About Colorado Creative Industries
Colorado Creative Industries is Colorado's state arts agency and is a division of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Established to capitalize on the immense potential for our creative sector to enhance economic growth in Colorado, the mission of CCI is to promote, support and expand the creative industries to drive the state's economy, grow jobs and enhance our quality of life. www.coloradocreativeindustries.org
Video: The impact of the farm bill on agriculture and business
| Up on the farm UMB Bank's Agribusiness Division President Bill Watson talks about the farm bill's impact on agriculture and businesses.Learn more.
The video is 2:14 |
Where do young firms get financing?
From the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: Young firms are likelier than older firms to contribute to job growth, but less likely to get financing. So where do they turn?
Reduced economic uncertainty and strong income growth can help those in search of equity financing, as investors become more willing and able to open their pocketbooks. But even when the economy is strong, there is a business segment that's had an especially difficult time getting financing. And as we've highlighted in the past, this is also the segment that has had the highest potential to contribute to job growth—namely, young businesses.
Why is it hard for young firms to find credit or financing more generally? At least two reasons come to mind: First, lenders tend to have a rearview-mirror approach for assessing commercial creditworthiness. But a young business has little track record to speak of. Moreover, lenders have good reason to be cautious about a very young firm: half of all young firms don't make it past the fifth year. The second reason is that young businesses typically ask for relatively small amounts of money. (See the survey results in the Credit Demand section under Financing Conditions.) But the fixed cost of the detailed credit analysis (underwriting) of a loan can make lenders decide that it is not worth their while to engage with these young firms.
While difficult, obtaining financing is not impossible. Over the past two years, half of small firms under six years old that participated in our survey (latest results available) were able to obtain at least some of the financing requested over all their applications. This 50-percent figure for young firms strongly contrasts with the 78 percent of more mature small firms that found at least some credit. Nonetheless, someyoung firms manage to find some credit.
This leads to two questions:
- What types of financing sources are young firms using?
- How are the available financing options changing?
CSU Extension offers an avenue for landowners to connect with local contractors
CSU Extension offers an avenue for landowners to connect with local contractors through our new landowner services database at http://sam.ext.colostate.edu/. If you or your business serves small acreage properties, then consider submitting your company to the online searchable database developed by CSU Extension and the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service. The Small Acreage Services Database (SASD) is a dynamic online tool that enables landowners to search for land management products and services available in a given region of Colorado. Searchable topics include grass seeding, fencing, livestock, forestry, specialty crops, equipment, weed control and soil nutrition. If you need help implementing your management prescriptions, this website will enable you as a landowner to find local resources, contractors, equipment, and services by in your specific area. Think of this as an online contact book for local products and services specific to agricultural opportunities.
Businesses can submit their company online and landowners can search for contractors, at: http://sam.ext.colostate.edu/
This service is completely free and opened to any business, organization, or individual, in good standing, that grows, buys, or sells products and services that will benefit small acreage landowners as they work to improve and manage their land. No endorsement of named products is intended, nor is discrimination or criticism implied of products mentioned or not mentioned. There is no cost to submit your company to the database or to search for a company on the database.
As this database is populated, it will be a great tool to connect landowners with contractors in order to implement these activities on the land. If you need help or have questions about this new website, contact the small acreage coordinator at 970-243-5068 x 128 or jrizza@colostate.edu .
Jennifer Cook
Small Acreage Management Coordinator
NRCS/CSU Extension
303-659-7004 ext.3
(cell) 717-645-7817
jennifer.cook@colostate.edu
Small Acreage Website: www.ext.colostate.edu/sam
Economic Gardening is growing, but what is it?
From GOVERNING MAGAZINE: Instead of trying to lure big companies with tax incentives, more and more places are trying to increase the number of local businesses to boost their economies.
"Nearly 30 years ago, city officials in Littleton, Colo., put a novel theory to test: Could a small group of local businesses, with assistance from the city, boost Littleton out of its downward spiral?
The Denver suburb was reeling in 1987 after its then-major employer, missile manufacturer Martin Marietta (today Lockheed Martin) left town, laying off about 7,800 people over an 18-month period. The company also left about 1 million square feet of industrial and office space. That year, the city council directed its economic team to figure out how to not just fill the hole but to make sure Littleton was never that vulnerable again.
“As good a citizen as Martin Marietta was, they were headquartered out east,” says Chris Gibbons, Littleton’s business director at the time. “Our future was being determined by people far, far away. They didn’t have to see the people in the grocery store on Saturday that they laid off.”
Soon after, Gibbons and his team connected with a Denver think tank, the Center for the New West, that was anxious to test a theory developed by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist economist David Burch. That theory was that so-called Stage 2 companies, employing between 10 and 100 people and with annual revenue of at least $1 million, create the best kind of jobs that will improve an economy. As opposed to small shops that create mostly minimum wage jobs, these mid-sized companies were growing the middle class workforce. Nationally speaking, Stage 2 businesses make up 10 percent of the business population -- but they create 35 percent of the jobs. The thinking was that if such companies had the proper push they could drive a local economy upward."
Harvesting renewable energy to benefit sustainable community development
Community leaders and property owners from across Colorado and neighboring states will join representatives from universities, state and federal agencies, and private businesses as they engage in renewable energy and sustainable economic development discussions at the 2014 Pagosa Verde Symposium, August 21, 2014.
The discussions will encompass all forms of renewable resources as economic drivers. Heat and energy from any source can drive economic development. The symposium theme is not limited to geothermal applications. However, geothermal development in Colorado has momentum and its unique characteristics will provide a starting point for a broader discussion of renewables converted to economic opportunity.
Renewable energy investment encourages job creation through residential heating, local low-temp power generation, and agricultural and manufacturing opportunities. New state supported financial mechanisms in Colorado support renewable energy projects. This enables community investment in renewable projects and infrastructure with minimal impact on strained rural community budgets.
Presentations will range from global to local perspectives on direct-use and distributed power production including cascaded use of geothermal heat and the integration of renewable energy resources to maximize local potential.
Renewable and sustainable economic transitions rely on consideration of local, cultural, and political positions from the grass-roots up through policy and regulatory landscapes. Engaging the local population, academia and political leadership is vital.
Commercial vendors to the renewable energy market recognize the potential of community-scale distributed energy and direct-use geothermal development. Innovation ranging from small and efficient binary power systems to drilling equipment designed to reduce expense in direct-use systems will be discussed by industry leaders.
Renewable energy ascendency is a career consideration for STEM students. Leaders in the academic community are modifying curriculum to balance the rigor of engineering and science with sociological and political skills necessary to successful real-world outcomes. This academic shift towards accommodation of both student career desires and market trends drives innovative programs in greenhouse agriculture, aquaponics, aquaculture, and the STEM disciplines.
For more, visit Pagosa Verde
Re-Shaping Economic Development
According to a recent article in the Fourth Economy, many traditional approaches and methods for economic development are failing to keep up with the changing nature of job creation and investment in our communities. They highlight four observations about new trends re-shaping economic development models.
1. The Rise of “Solopreneurs”
A “solopreneur” is an entrepreneur who works alone, "solo," to run their business single-handedly. They might have contractors for hire, still maintain full responsibility for the running their business. Almost 17 million Americans are now "solopreneurs," 900,000 more than in 2011, according to the second annual "State of Independence in America" career study by MBO Partners, a firm that provides a leading business platform to help independent consultants succeed. And another 27 million U.S. adults are considering a shift to this form of work.
This trend is not new. In 2001, Daniel Pink wrote "Free Agent Nation: How America's New Independent Workers Are Transforming the Way We Live," which said, in part: "Beneath the radar of the political and media establishment, tens of millions of Americans have become free agents. Some -- fed up with bad bosses, dysfunctional workplaces, and the false promise in instant riches -- have leapt. Others -- clobbered by layoffs, mergers and downturns -- have been pushed. But they've all ended up in the same place."
MBO loosely describes solopreneurs as adults who work at least 15 hours a week as independent contractors, consultants, freelancers or project workers. MBO also includes small-business owners who have fewer than five employees.
The rise of the individual as a business continues to gain pace as people choose to make a living performing functions for larger businesses or even other solopreneurs. These individuals most often record their earnings via the IRS 1099 process and as a result do not appear in employment or unemployment statistics. This is a challenge for many in the field of economic development as we cannot measure or help what we cannot count or see.
The Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI) group recently published data that illustrates that as of 2012 there are an estimated 106.6 million self-employed people in the US, a 14.4% increase from 2001. This means that nationwide average of the self-employed workforce is over 7%. In some states such as California nearly 10% of the workforce is self-employed. According to YourEconomy.org, the most recent data for Archuleta County indicates there were 649 solopreneurs—a 10.2% increase from just two years earlier.
These workers have always been contributing to the economy in some way, but the new trend is that some smart communities are actually looking to provide supports to allow these statistics to increase.
Private companies like NextSpace (based in California) see a financial opportunity to provide the solopreneurs with just-in-time services and space through a membership model. DurangoSpace, based in Durango, CO has a public-private support model to offer similar services. These programs are more flexible in the lease arrangements as compared to the traditional incubator model. A smaller version is just being launched in Aspen Village in Pagosa Springs too.
This new movement is helping to get people that have been negatively impacted by the Great Recession get back onto the economic playing field while also allowing Millennials (also known as “Gen Y”—the generation with birth dates from the late 70’s to early 2000’s) and other self-directed people a chance to be their own boss.
The numbers offered by EMSI and others are probably a low estimate and will certainly grow as people look for new ways of working that allows for freedom, creativity and rewards based on experience and production.
2. Economic Gardening
There is growing awareness and proliferation of economic gardening programs. Economic gardening is an entrepreneurial approach to economic development that seeks to grow the local economy from within. What differentiates economic gardening from other entrepreneurship development strategies is its focus on providing market research and high-level technical assistance to small growth-oriented companies. The focus is on providing accurate, timely and relevant information to local entrepreneurs about key areas such as their competitors, customers, markets, and industry trends. Armed with this kind of information, a small business owner can make better strategic decisions, avoid costly mistakes, and successfully grow his or her enterprise.
Dozens of communities and even many states are talking the economic gardening talk—including Colorado—and walking the walk through formal programs and support. The concept that entrepreneurs are the real community job creators has been around for some time. The Kaufman Foundation is one of the more well-known aggregators of facts and studies that prove entrepreneurs’ fundamental importance and impact.
Michigan’s Economic Development Corporation announced they have now received $8 billion in commitments for their version, called the “Pure Michigan Business Connect” initiative. This public-private partnership seeks to support the homegrown team through a host of targeted initiatives and more flexible bank lending. The Michigan effort is one of the most visible and broad, but several other states including Florida (GrowFL) and Louisiana have programs in operation.
The difficulty with economic gardening programs is that they’re usually successful in small increments rather than the big news that political leaders like to announce around economic development projects. Economic gardening programs support entrepreneurial job creation that is more often about hiring five or ten new employees.
But when viewed holistically, these entrepreneurial hires can quickly hit the thousands and then you’re getting folks excited. This is the part that Michigan leaders seem to understand and they are working hard to support the home team’s efforts to rebuild their economy.
3. The Deal is Dead
Maybe the deal isn’t completely dead but it certainly has taken on “Zombie- like” qualities in its pursuit of eating the flesh (meaning resources) from other more meaningful economic development efforts like those mentioned previously.
Like lemmings racing towards the cliff, millions of dollars are invested by economic development groups chasing companies, and by companies chasing states into fevered competition against the other. All because an announcement of 300 new jobs resonates better with politicians than 30 announcements of 10 new jobs. This may be changing for some, but not fast enough.
This deal-driven mentality blocks what is needed to support transformative economic development. Economic development must embrace a new model that supports the key variables that are needed for future economic development. These include: quality housing, training and education, innovation, healthy communities, employment diversity and diversity in employment, and more.
Making sure that you have good locations available for a larger business expansion is an important action, but it cannot be the singular focus of your economic development efforts. Quality locations are now below the baseline of what businesses expect. Businesses tell me that the more important things they look for are:
- Educated workforce – Can they hire a local workforce that has the basic skills, can be readily trained for the production line, and pass a drug test?
- Talent – Are there other local firms that have decent talent and is there a higher education group that they can work with to create career tracks (management and technical) for their people?
- Community – If they need to recruit talent where will they live and play? Are the local schools good for their kids?
- Taxes, incentives and sweeteners – Is the community and state responsive to creating a level tax playing field or are they looking to businesses to balance the budget?
This is the new reality of we must be prepared to offer if we are going to support our community’s growth in 2013 and beyond.
4. Jobs and Counting Jobs
New hires, unemployment rates and job availability are all good data points but are drastically overused when you think about the size and complexity of our economy. Slowly, this focus of just counting job numbers to define the success is falling out of favor among early-adopters of fourth economy economic development. They are realizing that economic development investment must support a broader set of services for their community to be successful.
A broader and more robust set of categories and corresponding measures for the fourth economy will include:
- Investment – are companies and individuals investing in your community?
- Talent – do you have a pipeline of educated workers?
- Sustainability – do you consider the triple bottom line in making investment choices?
- Place – do people enjoy living in your community?
- Diversity – are new people including women and minorities welcomed into and supported by your community?
We at the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation have embraced these evolving and leading-edge views of successful economic development.