Last week, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter announced the Colorado Industrial Energy Challenge. Beginning with 13 participants, the challenge is “a voluntary program open to industrial facilities with more than $200,000 in annual energy costs.” In order to take part, “companies agree to set a five-year goal of reducing energy use, reporting total energy consumption for the base year, and in following years demonstrating progress. By joining the program, a company can receive free technical assistance to achieve its energy reduction goals.”

The press release names the following companies as comprising the 13: Amgen, Aspen Skiing Company, Avago Technologies, Crested Butte Mountain Resort, Encana, Frito-Lay, MillerCoors, New Belgium Brewing Co., Roche Colorado Corp., Rocky Mountain Bottle Company, Rocky Mountain Metal Container, Sandoz and Woodward.

New Belgium already stands as a leader in the fields of energy conservation, on site energy production, and energy efficiency. They capture waste heat from the brewing process and use it to melt snow on the loading dock in their distribution center.

To help the challenge, the United States Department of Energy awarded “the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) … a competitive grant.” Other collaborators on the challenge include The Southwest Energy Efficiency Project and Colorado State University’s Industrial Assessment Center, which “will provide most of the technical assistance to partner companies, with additional technical support from the ETC Group, an environmental engineering firm based in Salt Lake City.”

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