{"id":2452665,"date":"2019-12-27T21:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-28T04:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/whats-your-climate-action-plan-commissioner-poschman\/"},"modified":"2019-12-30T09:45:05","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T16:45:05","slug":"whats-your-climate-action-plan-commissioner-poschman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/whats-your-climate-action-plan-commissioner-poschman\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s your climate action plan, Commissioner Poschman?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Commissioner Greg Poschman poses for a portrait on the walking mall in Aspen.<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em>
<\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

During his year as chair of the Pitkin County board, Commissioner Greg Poschman has made it a habit to ask regular citizens, business owners and just about anyone else who appears in front of him if they have a personal climate action plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ask, \u2018what is your climate action plan?\u2019 to inspire and encourage and demand we pay attention to these pressing issues,\u201d Poschman said in a recent interview. \u201cWhat\u2019s fun is people start talking about what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

So as his chairmanship comes to a close at the end of the year, we wondered about Poschman\u2019s own climate action plan, what exactly such a plan entails and why it\u2019s important to have one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want anyone to feel guilty (if they don\u2019t have a plan),\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s important to look at how you can improve your own footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mona Newton, executive director of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency, said she has noticed Poschman\u2019s penchant for asking people about their climate plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts people on the spot,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I also think it\u2019s a good idea to get people thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Patti Clapper tends to give Poschman a bit of a hard time about his recurring climate queries, but also gives him credit for keeping the issue of climate change at the forefront of the local conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate his passion and fortitude for the issue,\u201d she said. \u201cBringing it up on a consistent basis makes people think about it more.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what exactly is a personal climate action plan?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s figuring out what actions I can take to reduce my impact on the planet,\u201d Newton said. \u201c(Ask yourself) where is the area I have the biggest impact on the planet?\u201d<\/p>\n

For Poschman, his wife and their two daughters, like many families their climate action plan is a compromise, he said. For example, he said his wife didn\u2019t like the light put out by LED bulbs until recently, while the entire family is becoming \u201ccompost maniacs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Poschmans also recycle and recently installed a new lighting system that cut the family lighting bill by 90%, Poschman said. Beyond that, he installed solar panels on the roof of their Brush Creek Village home two years ago, which means they pay no electric bill from April to October, he said.<\/p>\n

Between November and March, the electric bill is about $175 less than before the solar panels were installed, Poschman said.<\/p>\n

And while he takes the bus when he can, his next goal is an electric car, he said. Clapper teases him about driving a 1997 Jeep Cherokee, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say, \u2018Patti I have two kids to get through college,\u2019\u201d Poschman said. \u201cIt sucks when you want an electric car but you can\u2019t afford one yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newton said there are myriad ways to decrease personal impact on the planet, including carbon offsets for airplane flights, focusing on reducing plastic waste and participating in Pitkin County\u2019s robust compost program.<\/p>\n

There are online carbon footprint calculators for those with a more analytical approach, though Newton said others might want to figure out their largest personal impact and focus on reducing that.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo what lights you up,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it feels good to buy an electric car, drive an electric car. But you need to do more than just recycling. We\u2019ve got to get really lit up about what we\u2019re doing for climate action.\u201d<\/p>\n

jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commissioner Greg Poschman poses for a portrait on the walking mall in Aspen.Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Buy Photo During his year as chair of the Pitkin County board, Commissioner Greg Poschman has made it a habit to ask regular citizens, business owners and just about anyone else who appears in front of him if they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 23:53:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2452733,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452665\/revisions\/2452733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}