Certified green businesses
Certified businesses
Each year, the Colorado Green Business Network recognizes and celebrates businesses that go above and beyond in implementing sustainability in their operations. The graphic shows the estimated resource reductions and accomplishments our businesses achieved in 2025 alone.
Where are our businesses?
2025 Impact report
Check out our Impact report for more information on our program, and our award winners!
Visit our Business Directory to learn more about each and every one of our amazing businesses!
24-Karat Gold Award winner
The 24k Gold Award is a voluntary, members choice competition between Gold Certified Organizations, who submit a project that best demonstrates the sustainability efforts of the organization, team, or individual they wish to recognize. The winner is decided by all our CGBN members, after reviewing applications. The winner is announced at our annual Recognition Event with the handing over of the 24k Gold Trophy.
2025 Winner: Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
Their holistic waste reduction program relies on comprehensive training and engagement from all departments. All offices and locker rooms are equipped with recycling, compost, and Terracycle bins for snack wrappers. A-Basin also offers a comprehensive hard-to-recycle program that is available to all employees for home waste as well as operations. They collect electronics, textiles, batteries, light bulbs, personal hygiene products, and cartons for proper disposal, as well as latex gloves and shipping materials. They also provide free compost bins for employees. In 2024, A-Basin’s commitment led to a 50% diversion rate, diverting over 185,000 lbs of waste from the landfill.
Innovation Spotlight award winners
The Innovation Spotlight Awards give organizations the opportunity to be recognized for outstanding progress and innovation in a specific area of operations, including water, energy, waste, transportation, or community/equity.
Carver Brewing Company - community/equity
Launched ReGen Ale—a first-of-its-kind West Slope IPA brewed with local, regenerative malt from Proximity Malt (Monte Vista, CO) and regional hops from Billy Goat Hop Farm (Montrose, CO). These are grown with climate-smart practices like no-till farming and cover cropping, which reduce soil emissions, prevent land degradation, and shorten supply chains through local purchasing.
Roots Colorado: DIRT Coffee Bar - community/equity
DIRT (Divergent Inclusive Representation Transforms) Coffee Bar Created Colorado’s first community café and workforce development center tailored to the neurodivergent and disability communities, where they provide tailored job readiness and development services. In addition, they replaced their front lawn with water and sensory-friendly alternatives and electrified their HVAC system!
Gunnison Country Food Pantry - energy
Installed a 25kw AC solar PV System composed of 108 recycled solar panels on the roof of their building, projected to produce about 26 MWh of electricity annually. They partnered with Equitable Solar Solutions to collect lightly used solar panels from across the state. With their energy savings, they will purchase food and further strengthen their community.
Denver Water - transportation
Purchased ten Electric Vehicles and two hybrids thanks to their Carbon Reduction Value Stream Team. They also retired seven additional assets (including heavy equipment). These efforts combined to save an estimated 231 metric tons of CO2 equivalents annually. In 2025, Denver Water plans to purchase an additional twenty five EVs, including five EV pick-up trucks.
Ready Foods - water
Implemented their Hot Grind project, which allows them to grind peppers used in their red salsa production without cooling in water first. This change saved 4,500,000 gallons of water and $38,000 in water expenses in one year and created a more efficient process.
Revvity Inc. - waste
Collaborated across departments to test if they could ship a product at ambient temperature instead of on dry ice. The experiment was a success, saving on dry ice, processing time, and refrigeration. The initiative saved about $41,315 annually, and removed about 1,500 cubic feet of insulated packaging.
24-Karat Gold Award Winner: Jeff Purdy, Capco LLC
Since joining the Capco team in 2019, Jeff Purdy has been making a tremendously positive impact on Grand Junction’s Environment and Community. Under Jeff’s leadership as Environmental Health and Safety Manager, Capco has reduced 500,000 lbs of CO2 gas in a 9-month period, moved all facility lighting to LEDs, and has seen an 89% reduction in hazardous waste since 2019, through the active evaluation of all process streams, water, gas, and scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
EarthLinks: Equity
EarthLinks is a nonprofit that creates Earth-centered programming for people experiencing homelessness and economic poverty. EarthLinks provides workshops, trips into Nature, and urban gardening to community participants. Participants harvest more than 1,300 lbs of produce and craft more than 6,000 sustainable products.
Denver Water: Energy
Denver Water proudly serves high quality water and promotes its efficient use to 1.5 million people in Denver. Denver Water redeveloped their main campus, integrating LED lighting and LEED standards. They used solar to make the one building Net-Zero in energy. 1,570,000 kWh of energy saved per year.
Bear Creek Cabins: Water
Bear Creek Cabins is a family owned and operated vacation rental establishment in Evergreen, Colorado. Bear Creek Cabins Installed rainwater collection barrels and seeded drought-tolerant native grass mixes to minimize direct surface water run-off into Bear Creek during precipitation events and to completely eliminate potable water use for landscaping.
Circle Graphics: Waste
Circle Graphics is a producer of grand and large-format digital graphics, creating innovative projects for outdoor advertising, business signage, wall decor, and photography. Circle Graphics Implemented a polyethylene poster and bulletin recycling program in April 2021, resulting in the recycling of 216 tons of polyethylene since then.
Horizon Discovery: Waste
Horizon Discovery provides research services and products to support a greater understanding of the function of genes across all species. Horizon Discovery switched their cold shipped packaging to 100% recyclable, plant-based insulation panels, with an estimated 3530.4 MTCO2e saved from entering the atmosphere annually.
24-Karat Gold Award Winner: The Alliance Center
In May 2021, the Alliance Center installed one of the first vehicle-to-building (V2B) electric vehicle chargers, including a publicly available carshare, in North America. A dedicated Nissan LEAF will be utilized to provide electricity to the building during times of high energy demand, such as heat waves. The project is anticipated to reduce energy consumption for the building, while serving as a carbon free service for carshare members and a research opportunity for broader market impacts.
Arapahoe Libraries - community and equity
Arapahoe Libraries became a seed library, handing out native seed packets to 2,100 patrons at three libraries. They handed out 6,335 packets this year, and intend to expand their efforts to include a dirt pickup, to collaborate with local community gardens, and provide educational programs on patio gardening, harvesting seeds, and composting.
Broadcom - energy
Steve Wolley has been with Broadcom for over 35 years, and has been an outspoken advocate for energy reduction projects, including installing more efficient pumps, installing LEDs across campus, installing EV charging units, and designing an energy efficient building. His work, passion and drive is the single reason why the Broadcom Fort Collins facility has been able to reduce its GHG emission by nearly 73% in 2022.
Corden Pharma - waste
Corden Pharma manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for use in lifesaving medicines. The manufacturing process utilizes large quantities of solvents that typically become hazardous waste. Glenn Smith has recently led the organization to make dramatic improvements to the waste management program, allowing for over 3.3 million kg of solvents from different manufacturing steps to be recycled into a secondary market.
Essencify Design - energy
Essencify Design's website serves as the company's primary marketing outlet. Through a transition to a clean energy host and website redesign, they achieved a 63% reduction in emissions and a 48% reduction in energy consumption for their website on average per year.
Greater Park Hill Community Inc - energy
Led by Tracey MacDermott, the organization is working towards 100% electrification in their community building. After two years of site reviews, applications, and a new roof, solar panels have been added, and additional funding through the city has been confirmed to convert the building to 100% electric, which includes converting gas furnaces and water heaters.
24-Karat Gold Winner: Treehouse Learning
Treehouse Learning launched a water reduction project, removing grass and replacing it with several donated flats of water-wise, pollinator-friendly perennials. What began as a small opportunity-based project to reduce water usage soon took on a life of its own and quickly spread to the children at the school, connecting environmental stewardship with early childhood education. With their sustainability-based education, Treehouse Learning saved over 28,000 gallons of water per irrigation season, planted 13 new trees on campus, and provided 16 environmental educational outreach workshops for children.
Premier Members Credit Union (PMCU) - Community/Equity
PMCU received recognition from the Colorado Breastfeeding Coalition as a Lactation Friendly Workplace, and is the first to certify the entirety of their 19 branches. They created a “traveling lactation kit” that includes a portable pump, furniture, privacy screens, and other amenities, allowing employees to convert a room of any size into a private lactation space.
Cabinetworks Group - Energy
Engineering Manager, Royce Austin, implemented a dust collection control project to improve capacity and reduce electricity consumption. By implementing an on-demand, point of use dust collection gate system and VFD software, Cabinetworks Group was able to save 50,000 kWh/year and meet the facility’s increased demand, all while avoiding the purchase of an additional system that would have spiked energy use.
Centennial Airport - Transportation
Centennial Airport was the first airport in the state of Colorado to begin selling unleaded fuel, which is a more environmentally friendly fuel. The results were commendable, with UL94 fuel sales constituting 20% of the total fuel sales in 2023, amounting to over 101,512 gallons, and benefiting over 700 tenants at the airport. This fuel transition program serves as a model for airports across the country.
Circle Graphics - Waste
Circle Graphics had many canvas prints being scrapped as part of their normal printing process, printed on high quality canvas that could be reused. After noticing a high quality waste stream, the Green Action Team painted over the canvases by hand, preparing them for donation to local art centers in Longmont. The program has donated 243 canvases, around 1,283 pounds of materials so far.
Ready Foods - Water
The Ready Foods maintenance team worked to improve the efficiency of their existing boiler system, which has allowed Ready Foods to decrease standard operations from two boilers to one. This has streamlined production, reduced down time, and increased efficiency, leading to a 7% decrease in natural gas usage, saving 20,100 therms, and a 20% decrease in water usage, leading to a savings of 2,047,800 gallons of water annually.