Manitou mayor bringing environmentalism home

MANITOU SPRINGS - The federal government is paralyzed over what, if anything, to do about global warming.

Eric Drummond isn't.

When his house in Manitou Springs burned down in 2004, he rebuilt using a host of unconventional environmental techniques to boost energy efficiency. When he perceived a need for more action to reduce carbon emissions in Manitou, he ran for mayor, after his predecessor in the job had helped start Manitou on the path to sustainability. He has become the public face of the town's effort to reach carbon neutrality by 2030.

And he is out to show the Pikes Peak region that global warming is very much a local problem. An odd role, perhaps, for a corporate attorney who has spent much of his career working for utility companies.

"Most of what is going to happen in the U.S. over the next handful of years is going to happen in local communities," said Drummond, elected to a two-year term as mayor last fall. "I strongly feel like every town, every person has an opportunity in this."

Drummond, 48, grew up in El Paso, Texas, and has been an attorney since 1992, focusing on telecommunications and electric utility law. A partner in the firm Sifuentes and Drummond, he has represented major companies in mergers, city utilities in rate cases and the reallocation of the broadcast spectrum that occurred with the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Along the way, he began taking his work home, thinking about the energy used at his house in Austin and finding small ways to improve its efficiency, including using double-pane, argonfilled windows and lowflow shower heads.

"What motivated me was a general respect for the concept that it's a good idea to use the least amount of resources and have the smallest impact," he said.

He visited the Pikes Peak region on vacation in 2003 and returned that fall to see the autumn foliage. He wound up buying a house on the second trip, and six months later sold his home in Texas and moved his wife and two children to Manitou. Cybercommuting allowed him to continue his law practice.

He wasn't here for but six months when, in November 2004, faulty wiring in an outdoor hot tub sparked a blaze that destroyed the house.

Nobody was home and insurance covered the loss. And, in crisis, Drummond saw opportunity.

He gave the architect a long list of specifications he wanted for the new 2,100-square-foot house, all designed to reduce the home's energy use: southfacing windows to maximize sunlight; a ventilation system that pulls in cool air from lower floors and vents upper warm air through skylights (sensors shut the skylights when it rains); radiant floor heating, which heats the floor itself, like a stove; bamboo floors; superinsulated walls and roof; a high-efficiency European natural gas furnace; and a wood-burning stove.

The list goes on, and contractors were mystified but told him if the architect could draw it, they could build it.

"It added substantially to the cost, but I think it was well worth it," Drummond said. "I made a conscious decision to keep our personal carbon footprint as small as we possibly could."

The extra measures added 15 percent to the cost to build the house, Drummond said. He declined to say how much it cost. Drummond said his real estate broker said the new home is worth $625,000. Its assessed market value is $280,881, according to El Paso County Assessor's Office. Drummond said the extra costs will pay for themselves in energy savings, and he estimates it uses 30 percent less electricity than the previous house.

"Wow. He took that lemon and made lemonade out of it. That was most impressive," said Steve Saint, who organized the Green City Summit 2 in Colorado Springs in June and invited Drummond to speak.

At the summit, more than 100 people went to Colorado College to brainstorm ways for Colorado Springs to be more environmentally friendly. Drummond talked about his house and the efforts of Manitou officials to promote the same philosophy city-wide.

"This was my personal choice, my personal opportunity to walk the talk," Drummond said at the summit.

Last month, Manitou completed its climate action plan, a road map to reaching the goal of "carbon neutrality" - generating or saving as much energy as it consumes - by 2030. The city will look at ways to improve the efficiency of city buildings and street lights and encourage residents and businesses to conserve.

Officials want to increase recycling and reduce the number of garbage trucks on the streets by contracting with a single hauler. Transportation is a major part, too, and the plan calls for increased public transit, including a trolley and park-and-ride service into downtown Manitou to reduce traffic congestion.

The work was started before Drummond was elected mayor, but many believe he is the right person to steer the project because of his experience working with utilities and local governments.

"I think Eric is very forward looking. I think he brings a very cosmopolitan approach. He really understands how government at all levels works," said Manitou Springs councilwoman Elizabeth Feder, who last year led the effort for Manitou to join the national Cities for Climate Protection Campaign, one of 11 in Colorado. "I think that's what it takes. We're going to have to be able to coordinate on a lot of different levels."

Drummond said he is motivated by a love of the outdoors. A hiker and backpacker, he worries about the beautiful places of Colorado being ruined by drought, fires and decreased snowfall associated with global warming predictions, and the erratic weather patterns wreaking havoc around the world.

"We will experience, and probably are experiencing, pretty drastic climate changes that are increasing the chances of loss of life and safety," he said.

Like many environmentalists, he says he's frustrated about federal inaction on global warming. And with Congress in ideologic deadlock over the issue, he believes local efforts like Manitou's will be the impetus for change.

When he hikes on a mountain and sees a beautiful, fragile waterfall he wants to know it isn't for the last time.

"You want to be able to leave that and think somebody else can come along in a year or five years and see the same thing," he said.

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE MANITOU SPRINGS CLIMATE ACTION PLAN

- Build energy-efficient city buildings with alternative energy sources.

- Use alternative fuels for city vehicles.

- Contract with one waste hauler to reduce garbage truck traffic on streets.

- Expand recycling to include curbside pickup.

- Urge businesses and residents to switch to fluorescent light bulbs.

- Establish a park-and-ride area to reduce traffic and begin charging for on-street parking.

- Reinstate a trolley service.

- Increase education, including screening Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" at Manitou Springs High School.