Acknowledgements
Cool Boulder was established in the Spring of 2022, as the science became clear that natural climate solutions will be critical for making communities more climate resilient.
Cool Boulder worked with two local Certified B Corp agencies to help kick off the campaign:
Vermilion Design + Digital created our brand and icons, and Regenerative Pathways donated this website.
We also work with Due West Design on site updates, as well as numerous Cool Boulder Partners and community members on blog posts.
Students from the CU Masters of the Environment Program (MENV) joined the Cool Boulder team in its first year, to help launch the campaign. Their work was extremely helpful for building the required capacity to kick off our first two action areas, Connected Canopies and Pollinator Pathways, as well as outlining key pillars of the campaign, such as community engagement and community science.
Meet the Masters of the Environment Graduate Students from the University of Colorado, Boulder Who Helped Launch the Cool Boulder Campaign!
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Adam Hall
Adam is a graduate student at the Masters of the Environment program at CU Boulder where he studies Urban Resilience and Sustainability. His studies have focused on green infrastructure, urban forestry, and sustainable transportation. He aims to use GIS (computer mapping) to help create maps and tell stories to make cities more livable, sustainable, and equitable. Adam’s main goal is to make communities more resilient to climate change with nature based solutions in an equitable way. When Adam was working on his capstone project with Cool Boulder, he helped BVSD students run their Earth Day tree planting event with Tree Plenish and he organized the Urban Heat Mapping Campaign in coordination with NOAA and CAPA Strategies. He then took the heat data that volunteers created and made a story map with input and interviews from the volunteers. He also co-wrote the strategy document for Community Engagement and Science with his teammate Aspen. Adam hopes to take these skills and experience to New York City, where he grew up, to bring nature based solutions to communities in the city that need them the most. When he’s not working he enjoys riding his bike(s), skiing, and spending time in nature. Adam also loves to draw and often illustrates trees in cities in places that we do not normally find them.
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Ariana Borrello
Ariana Borrello is a community planner with FEMA Region 8, covering CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, and WY, where she provides technical assistance and guidance on hazard mitigation and integrated land use planning. Ariana supports the development and review of multi-hazard mitigation plans while striving to improve local capacity and capability around mitigation and understanding of risk, seeking to ensure equitable outcomes in pre-disaster mitigation. Before joining FEMA, she developed, facilitated, and implemented a strategy development guide for local communities and governments to manage urban landscapes and organic resources to achieve climate action and community resilience objectives. She has worked with local governments, non-profits, academic institutions, and community members to integrate equitable climate resilience and adaptation into community planning efforts with a strong focus on the incorporation of nature-based climate solutions, including helping to launch the Cool Boulder campaign in the City of Boulder, Colorado. Her experience in outdoor education, trail building, and working in Rocky Mountain National Park informs her work with different communities and land use planning. Ariana holds a Master of the Environment degree with a specialization in Urban Resilience and Sustainability from the University of Colorado – Boulder.
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Aspen Bias
Aspen, a University of Utah alum who dedicated herself to understanding the social and scientific systems that underlie human health, will soon be graduating with a Masters degree focused in Sustainable Food Systems from CU Boulder. Aspen is a food-centric environmentalist hoping to equitably improve the holistic health of people and planet through nature-based climate action. As a member of the Cool Boulder team she conducted outreach to influence the Campaign’s strategy for community engagement (link Community Engagement + Community Science Doc) and she explored methods for producing soil amendments locally. That exploration ultimately influenced her report (link Community Composting Expansion Exploration) which illustrates the potential for expanding community composting here in Boulder. Aspen will remain on staff through May of this year working to understand the impacts of increasing temperatures on Boulder residents. Post-graduation she would like to be working at the intersection of nature-based climate action and local food production.
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Danielle Furuichi
Danielle recently graduated from CU Boulder with a Masters of the Environment in Sustainable Planning and Management and Graduate Certificate in Environmental Justice. They are a passionate, equity-oriented, transportation planner and believe in building safe, reliable, equitable, and accessible transportation systems. Through their work they hope to foster communities that are inclusive, just, and climate resilient.
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Shannon Keane
Shannon Keane is a current graduate student studying urban resiliency and sustainability for CU Boulders Masters of the Environment program. Shannon is committed to working in communities to implement sustainable systems and build resiliency through equitable practices. She strives to connect community members to each other and to the environment, to protect and share nature's intrinsic value. As a member of the Cool Boulder Campaign's team, she conducted research on different municipalities and engaged local experts, as well as community members on native pollinator programs which influenced the Strategy Document for the Cool Boulder Campaign: Connected Canopies and Pollinator Pathways she co-wrote with Danielle Furuichi. Shannon also collected information on effective criteria for native pollinator gardens specific to the City of Boulder which she used to create the Creating Ecosystems in Our City document which will be used by the community of Boulder to help them establish and maintain gardens for native pollinators. Shannon will be graduating in May and is excited to continue her work in environmental justice and natural climate solutions.
In Cool Boulder’s First Year
More staff were brought on to help support and coordinate the campaign
Around 30 organizations joined the movement by becoming Cool Boulder partners!
Several successful programs were launched, including:
Tree Tenders trained and Tree Plenish event
Pollinator Advocates program and habitats planted
Community Science - Urban Heat Mapping