BVSD is proud to unveil our Sustainability Management System (SMS) report, which can be accessed here, to our employees and our community. This document is a major step in achieving the school district’s commitment to sustainable practices and provides a guide for making meaningful and measurable gains in BVSD sustainability.

The SMS is a comprehensive approach for identifying and coordinating existing efforts, establishing baselines, defining sustainability for BVSD, and creating plans to integrate sustainability into our operations and curriculum. The SMS will be used as a roadmap for future years and will be updated annually. Multiple stakeholders both within and beyond our organization have been involved in the process, including community representatives, the Governor’s Energy Office, Boulder County, and the University of Colorado, Boulder. There were eighteen members on the Task Force and sixty-four participants who attended small group sessions. These individuals are listed in the document’s executive summary.  BVSD is very appreciative of everyone’s time and effort during the past several months.

BVSD is a unique operational entity and the SMS reflects our current capacity to address the comprehensive opportunities before us.  The SMS also has an annual public reporting measure which will lead to accountable actions and future goal setting. BVSD is very excited to formalize our sustainable practices and looks forward to playing a large role within our community.    

BVSD would also like to acknowledge the Brendle Group for their exhaustive efforts to facilitate the many diverse groups and to compile our baseline data into this guiding document.

What is BVSD's SMS?
The development of a Sustainability Management System (SMS) involved multiple stakeholders both within and beyond our organization.  This process included, but was not limited to, the following activities:

• Developing a baseline inventory of district-wide energy and water consumption, solid waste generation and diversion rate, fuel consumption from fleet transportation activities and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
• Conducting interviews and working with department teams to compile information on existing programs and practices as well as future goals related to sustainability.
• Developing short and long term visions and goals around sustainability and creating strategies for meeting these goals.
• Creating a final written deliverable, an SMS document, that conveys the final proposed SMS, including recommendations, an executive summary, introduction/background/approach, a baseline inventory summary, prioritized goals and strategies. The SMS document also includes a section on funding, including potential funding sources such as grants and rebates, as well as a discussion of organizational considerations, including staff members responsible for championing this work.

In conjunction with the SMS process, and in partnership with the Governor’s Energy Office, BVSD created specific goals around sustainability for Phase II and Phase III bond projects coupled with a timely edit and update of BVSD’s technical specifications. 

An SMS is a comprehensive approach for identifying and coordinating our existing efforts, defining sustainability for BVSD and creating plans to integrate sustainability into our operations and curriculum.

To learn more about what a sustainability management system is and to stay informed about the district’s progress contact Ghita Carroll.

What is BVSD's SMS?
BVSD is engaging in the development of a Sustainability Management System (SMS), with a third party facilitator. This will involve multiple stakeholders both within and beyond our organization.  This process includes, but is not limited to, the following activities:

• Developing a baseline inventory of district-wide energy and water consumption, solid waste generation and diversion rate, fuel consumption from fleet transportation activities and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
• Conducting interviews and working with department teams to compile information on existing programs and practices as well as future goals related to sustainability.
• Developing short and long term visions and goals around sustainability and create strategies for meeting these goals.
• Creating a final written deliverable, an SMS document, that will convey the final proposed SMS, including recommendations, an executive summary, introduction/background/approach, a baseline inventory summary, prioritized goals and strategies. The SMS document will also include a section on funding, including potential funding sources such as grants and rebates, as well as a discussion of organizational considerations, including staff members responsible for championing this work.

In conjunction with the SMS process, and in partnership with the Governor’s Energy Office, BVSD will create specific goals around sustainability for Phase II and Phase III bond projects coupled with a timely edit and update of BVSD’s technical specifications. 

An SMS is a comprehensive approach for identifying and coordinating our existing efforts, defining sustainability for BVSD and creating plans to integrate sustainability into our operations and curriculum.

To learn more about what a sustainability management system is and to stay informed about the district’s progress click here.

Update on BVSD's SMS
The development of BVSD’s first Sustainability Management System (SMS) is in full swing. An SMS is a comprehensive approach for identifying and coordinating our existing efforts, defining sustainability for BVSD, and creating plans to integrate sustainability into our operations and curriculum. Thanks to everyone who has participated to date—we appreciate your thoughts and time.

• As part of this process, we are holding six group interviews on specific topics, four of which are now complete. The topic interviews include: Maintenance/Operations, Bond/Maintenance, Transportation, Education, IT/Comm/Records/HR and Business Services. 
• Thanks to grant opportunities through Xcel, we are also conducting energy audits in six buildings. These buildings are: Coal Creek Elementary, Eisenhower Elementary, Centennial Middle, Boulder High, Nederland Middle/Senior, and the Education Center. These buildings were selected because they represent a range in age and use and the information collected from the audits will help inform the SMS process.
• Finally, we are working to create an inventory of BVSD’s resource use. We have picked the 2007/2008 FY as our baseline year. We are starting with electricity, natural gas, propane, water, fleet fuels, solid waste and recycling, and will expand to other areas, time permitting.