Origin Story
In February of 2019, five Broomfield Eco-Leaders (volunteers with Eco-Cycle) got together to discuss the lack of composting options in our community. After researching what had been done in the past and learning that the city’s Environmental Task Force was working towards the goal of a curbside composting program, we were motivated to offer residents sustainability actions they could take today. The citizen group Sustainable Broomfield was formed! We began holding regular monthly meetings open to the public with the goal to provide residents with advocacy opportunities, easy access to resources, and educational information.
Change Makers
In order to make a difference immediately, we started teaching residents how to compost in their own backyards. We held composting information booths at The 2019 Sustainability Expo, Oracle’s Earth Day Celebration, over the summer at the Broomfield Farmer’s Market, in the fall at Broomfield Days, and started teaching our own backyard composting classes. Guest speakers were invited to our meetings to make presentations on topics beyond composting. They taught us about urban farming, vermicomposting, recycling, the climate crisis, and how to quit plastics. We interviewed City Council candidates about their views on sustainability in Broomfield and even had the new City Manager, Jennifer Hoffman, speak with our group.
To make ourselves known in the community, we started a Facebook page, sold t-shirts, grocery bags, and produce bags with our logo, and eventually accumulated enough donation money to start our own website, sustainablebroomfield.com. At the beginning of 2020, we clarified our mission and vision statements and began planning a huge community Earth Day Festival in partnership with the Broomfield Crescent Grange. By the end of February, we had registered 30 booth vendors, 6 presenters, 3 food trucks, and two performers for our festival, which would have completely filled our event space. Then, unfortunately, COVID19 hit and we had to postpone our event until next year. We continued having our meetings online and began looking at new goals for the group.
Adapting and Looking to the Future
In May, we completely redesigned and have been maintaining a large garden area at the Brunner Farmhouse in exchange for holding our meetings there. We also launched our brand new Compost Club, which collects compostable scraps from the public and creates nutrient-rich compost for the Grange Community Garden. The city started it’s own Zero-Waste campaign and we have partnered to help promote that initiative. We even had an article in the Broomfield Enterprise about our group and the composting program! This publicity resulted in a great turn-out to our June meeting in the gardens at the Brunner Farmhouse and to a recent Backyard Composting Class we hosted. On Tuesday, I will be discussing Sustainable Broomfield’s Composting Club on a live podcast with Joan Gregerson, founder of the Green Team Academy, https://www.facebook.com/GreenTeamAcademy/live. Then, Joan will be a guest speaker at our August meeting to discuss the launch of her 2020 International Climate Action Challenge.
It’s only been 15 months, but Sustainable Broomfield has made an impact and we don’t have any plans to let up any time soon! We hope you will join us in making a difference in our community!