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4CORE & Partner Events
Holiday Home Spotlight Event Three Springs December 6, 5 - 7:30 PM Tour ENERGY STAR Homes and celebrate the holidays with 4CORE!
Colorado Gives Day
Homebuyers Class
Regional Housing Alliance (RHA)
December 5, 5:30-8:30 PM
December 8, 8:30 AM -1:30 PM
4CORE will present info on how to make improvements and save money on bills.
Call for location and to sign up: 970-259-1418
Sustainable Building Education Program Brown Bag Lunch December 19, 12:00-1:15 PM First National Bank of Durango Training Room 259 West 9th Street, Durango |
| Sustainable Building Education Program
Seeks Your Input
Have you ever attended a 4CORE Brown Bag Lunch? You may have heard presentations about energy efficient lighting, historical energy efficient remodeling or passive solar design. If so, please consider completing our short, six question survey.
We appreciate your feedback as we evaluate the future of this program moving forward.
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| Nominate the Green Business of the Year
The Green Business Roundtable is soliciting nominations for its 2012 Green Business Leadership Award.
Nomination Criteria:
A for-profit business that demonstrates leadership, risk, and innovation in utilizing environmentally responsible, healthy and profitable business practices in the areas of:
- Energy and water
- Transportation
- Pollution and waste
- Manufacturing and purchasing
- Other contributions to the community
Link to nomination form
Deadline is November 16th
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Easy Way to Donate to 4CORE 
4CORE is pleased to announce that we are now a beneficiary of proceeds from Durango's Alpine Bank Loyalty Check Card for the Environment.
Each time you use your card, Alpine Bank donates 10 cents per transaction to organizations (like 4CORE!!). These special cards are available with no annual fee to individuals with an Alpine Bank checking account.
4CORE is thrilled to have such a committed partner! Please head down to the bank today to open an account, (if you haven't already) and sign on to the Environment Loyalty Check Card. This will enable 4CORE to serve more local residents with energy saving information, weatherization services and resource conservation ideas to help individuals, families and businesses thrive.
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Sponsor Opportunities
Sponsorship provides a direct channel of communication for you to connect with the community. Your support creates heightened awareness of energy efficiency in our community.
Newsletter Sponsorship
4CORE's newsletter reaches 2,000 subscribers who could be looking at your logo. Our open and click-thru rates are great, with 18% of email viewers clicking on links that could be taking them to YOUR website. Email for more information.
Brown Bag Lunch - Session Sponsor
Includes your logo in all promotional materials leading up to the event (enewsletter, flyers) and on display before the session.
Email for more information.
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 Energy to Evolve
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Energy News you Can Use is published monthly
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Thank you to our Partners!
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Resource News You Can Use
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Winter solstice brings the darkest time of year and we are using our lights in December more than any other month. Lighting is the biggest consumer of energy in commercial buildings and uses a significant percentage of electricity in homes, too (about 10%).
Easy Tip #1: LPEA has a super-duper rebate right now on LED bulbs; $10 will be taken off your electricity bill for each ENERGY STAR LED bulb you buy and submit rebate requests for. LED bulbs use 85% less energy than incandescent models. Plus, you can dim them and they come in a variety of hues.
This month, we are shining our Holiday Home Spotlight on ENERGY STAR homes at Three Springs, which have special lighting requirements to meet their certification standards. Join us to celebrate the holidays, and read on to shed some light on how to how you can decrease your lighting costs.
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3 Bulbs for Bright Ideas
Light your way through winter
 - Incandescent Bulb: These bulbs are still the cheapest to buy, but are the most expensive to power. 90% of the energy that goes into an incandescent bulb is released as heat, with the other 10% emitting light. This ratio is reversed for CFL lights. Replacing 15 inefficient incandescent bulbs in your home with energy-saving bulbs could save you about $50 per year.
- Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL): ENERGY STARŪ-qualified CFLs use about 75% less energy and last up to 10 times longer than traditional incandescents. A typical CFL can pay for itself in energy savings in less than nine months and continue to save you money each month. You can buy CFLs that offer the same brightness and colors as traditional incandescent bulbs. Some CFLs are encased in a cover to further diffuse the light and provide a similar shape to traditional incandescent bulbs. CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury and require special handling if they are broken. CFLs should be recycled at the end of their lifespan. 4CORE and LPEA accept spent CFL bulbs at their offices. Visit www.epa.gov/cfl for cleanup and safe disposal steps.
- Light Emitting Diode (LED): A New Kind of Light. LED bulbs offer similar light quality to traditional incandescents, last 25 times as long, and use even less energy than CFLs. Choose ENERGY STAR-qualified LEDs for the highest quality and energy savings.LED bulbs are rapidly expanding in household use. ENERGY STAR-qualified LEDs use only about 20%-25% of the energy and last up to 25 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs. They come in a variety of colors, and some are dimmable or offer convenient features such as daylight and motion sensors.
Believe it or not, 40,000 LED holiday lights only pull as much energy as three toaster ovens! Check out this video about lighting up your holidays for less:
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Holiday Home Spotlight
This Thursday!
December 6th, 5 to 7:30 PM
Celebrate the holidays with 4CORE!
This event will highlight the energy efficient homes being built at Three Springs. A free shuttle will run to and from the Durango Transit Center and refreshments will be provided. The shuttle runs every hour, picking up a the Transit Center at 0:08 and Three Springs office at 0:38 ending at 7:38 PM.
We're spotlighting ENERGY STAR Certified homes. ENERGY STAR (version 3) is a Department of Energy certification program for high performance homes. Homes have requirements for:
- Air sealing
- Insulation
- High-performance windows
- Efficient heating and Cooling equipment
- Advanced lighting
- Appliances
- Climate-specific recommendations
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- HVAC design and installation
- Whole-house mechanical ventilation
- Water-managed construction details
- Building material
- Field verification
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RSVP here- It's FREE
Thanks to all our sponsors who are making this event happen!
 
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Annadel Building Solutions
More Information Here
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Leaps of Faith
Lead to Oxbow
Excerpt By 4CORE Finance Manager Bonnie Rozean
Last summer we found ourselves experiencing the giddiness of mortgage emancipation while watching rates drop to an all time low. While renting these last three years has brought a certain kind of freedom, we found that we were missing being able to putter around our own home and we began searching for our new dwelling. Initially we searched the inventory of existing homes within a seven to ten mile radius of Durango. Quite a few small homes tugged at our nostalgic heart strings but premonitions of a "Retrofit Reality" show and "Accelerated Aging" infomercials quickly shifted our focus to the new home market.
We are very fortunate to have all of the qualifications for a new loan and be able to partake of the incredibly low mortgage rates although we are reticent to embark on a new 30-year mortgage at this age and stage of life. Keeping our sights in the $350,000 range and unwilling to settle for inefficiency we found ourselves full circle at Three Springs where new ENERGY STAR Version 3 homes are bursting onto the market....
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Thanks for Helping 4CORE in 2012!
Here at 4CORE we want to extend our gratitude to YOU - our sponsors, donors, volunteers and supportive community members as we near the end of a successful and productive 2012. Despite stringent funding cuts and staff reductions, with your help we were able to overcome challenges and demonstrate our commitment to changing lives through energy efficiency.
Here are just some of the amazing achievements we've made together in 2012 to date:
- 134 low-income homes made safer and more energy efficient through weatherization, resulting in over $64,454 in annual savings for residents. Weatherization measures typically last 15-20 years, which equates to over $1,250,000 in savings over 20 years.
- Over 700 people benefitted through 4CORE energy efficiency outreach and educational presentations
- Formed the Southwest Weatherization Collaborative with partners Housing Solutions for the Southwest and Southwest Conservation Corps
- Launched the Resource Smart Business Program, with local partners, La Plata Electric Association, Healthy Lifestyle La Plata, Local First, Fort Lewis College Environmental Center, Southwest Connect and Bright Green, making it possible for 21 local businesses to become more energy efficient and sustainable.
- Launched the HomeRx program pilot, for residents who are interested in improving energy efficiency in their homes and don't qualify for our Weatherization Assistance Program.
- Decreased our dependence on foreign oil and reduced air pollution through 617,750 kilowatt hours of energy saved.
Find testimonials about our work on our website.
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Call 4CORE at 970-259-1916 if you have any questions or need assistance.
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As always, if you have any feedback or questions about becoming more energy efficient, please contact us. |
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