• Shutterstock

A parking lot at the southwest corner of North Nevada Avenue and East Cache la Poudre Street is a little more energetic with Colorado College's recent installation of a publicly accessible electric-vehicle charging station. The new hardware comes courtesy of CC graduate Jim Burness, says a press release, who is the CEO of National Car Charging, and arranged for a separate company to donate the station.

“In combination with electricity generated from renewable sources, electric vehicles will significantly reduce carbon emissions and play an important role in advancing smarter grid technology,” says CC’s sustainability coordinator, Emily Wright, in the release. “We hope our public charging station in downtown Colorado Springs will encourage these emerging technologies on a local scale.”

Charging fees will run 75 cents per hour, with one hour generating between 10 to 20 miles of driving distance. The station joins several others in the Colorado Springs area, including one installed at the First & Main Town Center.

• Honeywell

From the listings desk: We see a lot of events here, and many recycling events for old electronics, expired medications and chemicals. But this one, coming up on Earth Day weekend, takes the cake.

The Honeywell Earth Day Recycling Event happening Friday, April 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. will host four entities that will take everything from scrap wood to old mattresses to dead cell phones. All that stuff that's hard to get rid of. And then some:

Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity will accept good, re-usable construction materials, appliances, plumbing fixtures and tools for its ReStore.

Discover Goodwill will take second-hand clothing, household items, sporting goods, small furniture and any working electronics and computers.

Western Scrap Processing will collect all small and major appliances, mattresses, batteries, cell phones and "anything with a power cord!"

El Paso County Environmental Services Department will take paint (both liquid and aerosol), prescription medication, medical sharps and household hazardous waste.

Some fees will apply for certain items, but most of the items will be taken for free.

For more information, call 637-6700 or see the pdf.

Honeywell_2013_Earth_Day_Poster__2_.pdf

According to the Colorado Reptile Society, water and land turtles are returning to their summer homes after hibernation. Thus, you may encounter one specimen on his or her journey.

Naturally, you should leave the turtles alone:

If you see a turtle on a road, the best thing is to help it to the other side (minding your own safety!) in the direction it was headed. Turtles do know where they are going — turning the turtle around will only delay its eventual and perhaps unsafe road crossing.

A wild turtle moving around is not homeless — so unless the turtle is truly in the midst of a city, please don’t remove it from the wild. Treat it just like an elk in Rocky Mountain National Park — wonderful to look at and enjoy, not something meant for a pet!

The distribution, populations and trends among turtles, snakes, lizards and toads are poorly known in our state, says Colorado Parks & Wildlife. But you can get a fairly good idea of who's native with its Herpetofaunal Atlas.

• Colorado Reptile Humane Society
• Leave this guy be.

But, if it is a herp your hurtin' for (like this wily woman, Rita), the society, located in Longmont, has water turtles, box turtles and tortoises in need of adoption. They need outdoor habitats like ponds or a pen. Call 303/776-2070 or visit corhs.org for information.

Despite threats from Gov. John Hickenlooper, Fort Collins has become the second municipality in Colorado to ban fracking.

According to the Denver Post:

The approved measure was developed in response to widening public concerns about increasing oil and gas operations along Colorado's heavily populated Front Range.

It amends Fort Collins' code to prohibit oil and gas operations, hydraulic fracturing and some waste storage within city limits.

Dozens of residents urged council members to protect them from oil and gas activity that they see as a threat to air and water, and pledged that "we've got your back" against state authorities "if you fight for us."
Several other cities and counties have drafted or declared moratoriums on drilling while they try to craft local rules to address operations that increasingly are conducted close to communities and may threaten residents' health.

Last week, the governor told CBS4 that he would move forward with a lawsuit against any municipality that passed such a ban.

“Nothing," he stated, "makes me less happy then to have to be in a lawsuit with a municipality."

Currently, the state is the middle of a lawsuit against Longmont, which was the first in the state to pass such a ban.

It would appear that nature has made such a ban for Colorado Springs a moot issue. Due to "disappointing" results from Ultra Petroleum's exploration of its El Paso County, the Texas-based company has stated that it has no interest in further exploring the petroleum.

Hilcorp Energy Company, which also holds permits in the county, is still evaluating the results from its most recent well, says Justin Furnace, corporate manager of Hilcorp's external affairs.

Before you ask what this upcoming film, Midway, has to do with Colorado Springs or our area, or why it's worthy of this posting, I'll say that this four-minute clip (found on a friend's Facebook feed today) pretty much speaks for itself.

Take a look:

MIDWAY : trailer : a film by Chris Jordan from Midway on Vimeo.

The issue at hand is of a global nature, and quite frankly everyone who uses plastic is in a small way complicit.

Which is why news of West Hollywood's plastic-bag ban going into effect today shows promise, or at least one step in the right direction and some continued progress, one community at a time.

If you're moved by what you've seen and care to get involved, the film's website notes a calling for tax-deductible contributions through Fractured Atlas.

And keep an eye on the larger plastic debate with sites like the Plastic Bag Ban Report and Plastic Oceans.

If you're unaware of where to recycle your plastic locally, to keep it out of landfills (not to mention the wind, and ultimately the oceans), visit this resource page on the City of Colorado Springs' website.

• A haunting image from the film Midway, potentially portending the sad future of what our plastic habit will do to the planet's wildlife.

Consider this an open letter of appreciation and acknowledgment to Bingo World.

Last August, in my exploration into local bingo halls, I criticized Bingo World and the Knights of Columbus bingo hall for not recycling the mass of paper and vending items (cans, plastic bottles, etc.) their businesses generate daily.

Being a greenie, I was personally upset to watch cans of recyclables headed to Dumpsters post-game in a very wasteful manner.

Donna Barney, whose husband Brad owns Bingo World, apparently took note of my poke, and emailed earlier this week to let us know that they'd just started a recycling program.

In an email, she said she expects to divert "well over half our trash" via her provider, Waste Connections — everything but food scraps and foam plates and the like.

So cheers to them, and let's hope other bingo halls in the area and all over follow suit, if they aren't already thinking green.

• Matthew Schniper
• A good eco-friendly action deserves a friendly wink. Notice the large plastic tub of paper that formerly was headed to a landfill?

The state announced today that it will be contracting with Colorado State University to conduct a study of emissions due to oil and gas drilling.

According to the press release:

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will contract with Colorado State University to conduct the study. It would be similar to an ongoing CSU-led study of oil and gas emissions in Garfield County. The first phase of the study is projected to cover a three-year period from July 2013 through June 2016.

A second phase to develop a health risk assessment would begin in January of 2016. As part of his budget request to the Joint Budget Committee, Governor Hickenlooper will seek approval for $1.3 million from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s Environmental Response Fund to provide initial funding for the project. The ERF is comprised of proceeds from oil and gas development.

Read the full release after the jump.

Colorado College announced last week that it will soon overhaul Slocum Hall, the student residence building at the corner of Nevada Avenue and Cache la Poudre Street.

Though some of the renovation will address campus and student needs (such as a new lounge, new furniture in rooms and technology-related upgrades), much of it will focus on sustainability.

From the press release, here are some of the green details:

The first phase of the $14 million renovation project kicks off on Jan. 7 and continues through Jan. 18, the end of Half Block, with the installation of new, energy-efficient windows in the students’ rooms. Numerous other improvements also demonstrate CC’s continued commitment to sustainability. These include adding insulation in exterior walls and installing low-flow water fixtures, dual-flush toilets, energy-saving lighting with sensors and timers, a new heating and ventilation system, and individually controlled thermostats in the residential student rooms.

The window-replacement phase will be followed by additional improvements during Spring Break, with the bulk of the work slated to take place during the summer break. The renovation, which is funded through bonds, is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 22, in time for the 2013-14 academic year. ...

In a move that further underscores the college’s commitment to sustainability, CC has contracted with a company that specializes in international surplus redistributing; consequently, the used furniture from the students’ rooms in Slocum Hall will be sent for redistribution in a Third World school.

Completing the transformation of the 1950s building to one of the 21st century will be an updating of the exterior with the use of stone, metal and tile. ...

The renovation project calls for the use of local products when available. The general contractor is GH Phipps, which also did the 1996 addition to Slocum Hall, as well as the Western Ridge student apartments, the Worner Student Center renovation and the Mathias Hall renovation. The architect is CSNA and major sub-contractors are Olson Plumbing and Heating, Dynaelectric and Western States.

Here are a couple of architectural renderings:

• CSNA

• CSNA