“Inspired.”
That was the word that loomed largest in a community-driven word cloud following Carbondale’s climate discussion Tuesday evening at the Third Street Center.
The discussion — hosted by Clean Energy Economy for the Region (CLEER), Garfield Clean Energy, Town of Carbondale, Town of Carbondale Environmental Board and supported by Marble Distilling — outlined where Carbondale stands on its environmental goals, and prompted attendees to determine how the community should take action to meet those goals.
Carbondale’s emissions reduction goals are to reach 100% net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and 50% emissions reduction by 2030, compared to 2005 levels, explained CLEER Education and Outreach Manager Emily Williams in her presentation at the discussion. According to 2024 data, Carbondale’s emissions decreased by 41% per person since 2004. The town’s overall emissions decreased by 30% over this period, while Colorado’s emissions decreased by 22% from 2005 to 2024. That’s as Carbondale’s population increased by 5.6% from 2010 to 2024 and Colorado’s increased by 20%.
“What this says to me is we’ve made really good progress, and we’ve still got a long way to go,” Williams said of reaching the town’s goals.
Carbondale’s emissions are tallied in three different scopes: emissions inside the town boundaries, emissions from grid supply of electricity used by the town and emissions from outside town boundaries that are created by the town, Williams said.
In 2024, Carbondale emitted 76,986 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MT CO2e), a metric that equates the amount of various greenhouse gases to the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
Transportation emissions account for 61% of that total. Natural gas emissions primarily from buildings constitute 20%, electricity emissions primarily from buildings constitute 17%, landfill emissions make up 1.4% and wastewater treatment tallies 0.7%, according to the 2024 data. Of the emissions produced by transportation, 95.2% are produced by traffic that starts or ends in Carbondale (which could mean someone coming from Denver to Carbondale), while just 4.8% are produced by in-town traffic.
Between 2009 and 2024, transportation emissions declined slightly, Williams said, though she noted the transportation emissions trends are notoriously hard to measure as past data collection used different methodologies than they do currently.
“Regardless of whether or not this has gone up or down,” Williams said of transportation emissions trends, “it’s 60% of our emissions right now.”
To reduce emissions in this sector, individuals could think about purchasing an electric vehicle or using public transportation, she said.
“For those in-town trips, Carbondale’s a small place, a couple miles across,” Williams said. “What are the opportunities for active transportation? Biking, walking? What does that infrastructure look like? Also, thinking about how do we incentivize that as a region?”
Discussing emissions trends in other sectors, Williams said emissions from wastewater treatment decreased significantly between 2009 and 2024.
“Emissions (were) cut by 60% at the wastewater treatment plant,” Williams said. “That’s something the Town of Carbondale, that’s in its municipal control, and they have done an amazing job.”
Emissions from landfill are estimated to have remained relatively constant between 2009 and 2024, though the town’s diversion rate from the landfill sits at 26%, higher than the state average of 15%, Williams said.
Emissions from electricity use in buildings, however, dropped by 54% between 2009 and 2024, despite electricity use increasing, which Williams credited to the increase of renewable energy sources on the electrical grid.
In 2024, electric utility company Xcel Energy produced slightly less than half of its electricity from wind, solar and other carbon-free energy sources. Holy Cross Energy produced 75% of its electricity from renewable sources. So far in 2026, Williams said Holy Cross has sourced 92% of its electricity from renewables.
Both natural gas use in buildings and building emissions produced by natural gas declined slightly between 2009 and 2024, which Williams attributed to property owners switching to electric energy.
But there’s more work to be done to meet Carbondale’s emissions reduction goals.
“If Carbondale’s trying to cut their emissions in half, we’ve got a little bit of a way to go before 2030,” Williams said.
Following the presentation, CLEER asked community members to share what they believe needs to happen and how they believe Carbondale can accelerate change to meet its emissions goals across buildings, electricity supply, transportation, waste and green infrastructure/land use.
Transportation claimed the most community interest. Written comments from the community on “what needs to happen” in transportation included:
“More and new bike racks.”
“More EV fast chargers.”
“Carbondale Circulator should be electric.”
“More BRT times in middle of day.”
“Eliminate parking options — then we have to find another way.”
“Keep funding WE-Cycle and Downtowner.”
Carbondale Mayor Erica Sparhawk also spoke at the discussion, remarking on the community support that has led the Town of Carbondale and local utility companies to the environmental focus they have achieved today.
“A big shout out to community members who stay engaged, keep pushing on us as a town council, asking us to do the next thing, helping us get plans in place,” Sparhawk said. “Because we wouldn’t be here without this kind of really strong community support, without the businesses implementing the new technologies, getting those installed in people’s homes. It takes all of us to get it done.”