The city of Aspen’s environmental health and sustainability department is launching a slew of grants, rebates and incentives as federal programs disappear.
The program is designed to provide resources to residents, businesses and property owners to implement sustainability in their properties. There are various grants, rebates and incentives available for electrification, air quality, waste reduction, water conservation and other community programs.
“We know at the federal level — and to some extent the state level — there’s some incentives for sustainability that are sunsetting,” said Tessa Schreiner, the city’s environmental health and sustainability manager. “And so we put our heads together to think about how we, as a department, could provide some incentives to community members and how we could kind of move some funds around that we had already in our budget, but that we could kind of concentrate into this particular program.”
Over $100,000 will be available for people to access through the program. Some program applications are open now, like the city’s youth climate ambassador pilot program that will offer grants to people under the age of 24 to implement sustainability and climate-action projects in the community. Those applications are due to the city by Jan. 26.
Grants and incentives are also available for local businesses that are part of the Colorado Green Business Network of Aspen to implement more sustainable business practices, Schreiner said.
“Those are kind of the things we have heard from the community that might be of value and that we get a lot of calls about, or we get questions about,” she said.
The city is also offering free countertop compost bins through the new program to help transition residents in multifamily complexes to the second phase of the city’s organic waste diversion ordinance.
All multifamily properties — like condominiums and apartment buildings — and commercial businesses will be prohibited from disposing of organic material such as food into landfill trash beginning Jan. 15. It is growing on the city’s organic waste ordinance that was approved in February 2023 and first required all businesses with retail food licenses to compost. In 2028, the ordinance will apply to everyone within city limits.
More programs will roll out throughout the year. In February, city residents can apply for a $200 discount on an indoor compost machine. Beginning March 1, qualifying Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority households with a radon test result in the last two years of at least 4 pCi/L (picocuries per liter) can apply for assistance to help with the cost of radon mitigation.
Beginning May 4, category 1 and 2 APCHA households can apply for a free air purifier. Both APCHA owners and renters are eligible to apply.
In the spring, the city will offer rebates to landscaping companies transitioning to electric leaf blowers. It will also offer rebates to both residential and commercial Aspen Water customers for irrigation upgrades and turf replacement to reduce outdoor water use.
It is the first year the city is rolling out a comprehensive grant, rebate and incentive program for environmental health and sustainability purposes. The city is hoping to continue offering some type of program moving forward, but will use this year as a pilot to understand where the needs are, Schreiner said.
“We want to get feedback from the community on, are these the right things that we should be offering support around, are there other things that would be more helpful,” she said. “We want this to be ongoing, and to the degree at which that looks is going to be based on community use and community feedback.”
Interested applicants can apply on the city’s website. More information for the upcoming programs will become available closer to those programs’ rollouts.
