Yampa Valley Sustainability Council awards honor achievements, old and new

JANUARY 11, 2019 BY YAMPA VALLEY SUSTAINABILITY COUNCIL

Article adapted from the Steamboat Pilot and Today

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — The Yampa Valley Sustainability Council handed out six awards Wednesday to community members who contributed to local sustainability in 2018.

Among the recipients were Marsha Daughenbaugh, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award for decades of environmental work in Routt County, as well as Megan Moore-Kemp and Scott Kemp. Their recently completed home won the Sustainable Home Award the Sustainability Council unveiled this year.

The council has hosted the award ceremony since 2011 as a way of recognizing environmental stewards in the community and promoting sustainability initiatives. Four additional awards are given each year to a government representative, a local business, an education program and a “shining star,” which this year went to a high school group that proposed a plastic bag ban to the Steamboat Springs City Council.

As she accepted her Lifetime Achievement Award, Daughenbaugh acknowledged the people she has worked with at the Sustainability Council and around town who have supported her numerous initiatives over the years.

“It takes a community to make things better,” she said.

Fostering community through sustainability programs has been a cornerstone of Daughenbaugh’s life work.

She retired in March as the executive director of the Community Agriculture Alliance, a nonprofit that united many local farmers to help them sell their produce to consumers in the area. During her time with the Agriculture Alliance, she was instrumental in starting the Community Agriculture Market, a website where people can order a variety of local produce from alfalfa-fed beef to alpaca hats.

Anne Mudgett, the Sustainability Council’s communications and development director, discussed the impact of such a website as she handed Daughenbaugh her award.

“When people are buying local, they’re really reducing the carbon footprint of their food,” she said.

Daughenbaugh grew up and still lives on her family’s cattle ranch in Routt County, Rocking C Bar Ranch. She said environmental stewardship is especially important in Northwest Colorado, where water is often scarce and the soil requires responsible farming to stay healthy.

“Folks around here understand the importance of sustainability,” she said. “They have to make sure to take care of the land or the land won’t take care of them.”

Megan Moore-Kemp and her husband, Scott Kemp, made a cramped commitment to sustainability. For eight years, they lived in a 624-square-foot apartment with their two kids and two dogs while they built their home that won this year’s new Sustainable Home Award.

“Our 1,800-square-foot house feels like a mansion now,” Moore-Kemp said of her new digs in the Fairview neighborhood.

The home, designed by Erik Lobeck from Workshop L and built by New Mountain Builders, was constructed with recycled materials and will use energy-efficient lighting and plumbing that will be about 40 percent more efficient than a house built at the basic building code, Scott Kemp said.

Mudgett emphasized that the Sustainability Council values the diversity of environmental initiatives that the annual award ceremony recognizes.

“We talk about sustainability being a community effort,” she said. “This year’s award recipients really show that.”

To reach Derek Maiolo, call 970-871-4247, email dmaiolo@SteamboatPilot.com or follow him on Twitter @derek_maiolo.