By Margaret Hedderman
This year, West Slope Startup Week is placing a spotlight on climate innovation with the introduction of a climate initiative. The annual event, known for cultivating entrepreneurship across Colorado’s Western Slope, is recognizing the critical role startups play in addressing the global climate crisis.
“Entrepreneurs are gutsy people,” said Rich Sherman, the climate lead at WSSW. “These are people who already are able to transform a vision of a future state into a reality through hard work and dedication, and that’s exactly the kind of entrepreneur we need to solve a problem as big as the climate crisis.”
The new climate initiative includes an umbrella climate statement aimed at influencing action event-wide, a series of sessions on climate and sustainability, a panel discussion with experts in climate innovation and finance, and a zero-waste initiative. These elements underscore WSSW’s commitment to driving meaningful conversations and actions around climate change.
The Crucial Role of Entrepreneurship in Climate Action
The climate conversation intersects virtually every industry. That’s why WSSW aims to elevate the issue, illuminating the opportunities for entrepreneurs directly engaged in climate innovation and those in other sectors seeking to make an impact.
“Climate touches literally every industry. If you make or sell a product, provide a service, or produce something that people pay for, you are somehow touching the consumption and production of resources,” Christophe Jospe, the Founder and President of Carbon A List.
Jospe will be speaking on the panel discussion “Green Horizons: Unlocking Climate Opportunities in Rural Colorado and Beyond;” which aims to explore the real opportunities and challenges of climate-focused entrepreneurship on the Western Slope and beyond.
Colorado—recognized as a national and global leader in advanced industries like quantum and clean tech—is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this expanding sector.
“The region itself actually offers a number of unique opportunities to climate entrepreneurs that you can’t necessarily find in other places,” Sherman added. “Colorado’s Western Slope has the power to become a hub for climate innovation.”
The panel discussion will feature:
- Kyle Hanson, Founder & CEO of Timber Age™ in Durango – develops sustainable, locally-sourced engineered wood products for the building industry.
- Tim Wolters, Co-founder and CEO of CrowdSolve in Boulder – facilitates investment and accelerator access for early-stage climate entrepreneurs.
- Sarah Hinkley, Co-founder and CEO of Barn Owl Precision Agriculture in La Junta – creates agtech solutions for sustainable farming practices in small and midsize farms.
- Christophe Jospe, President and Founder of Carbon A-List in Hotchkiss – provides strategic consulting on climate change solutions across various sectors.
- Jacquelyn Francis, Founding Executive Director of the Global Warming Mitigation Project – an international nonprofit that supports the world’s best climate entrepreneurs with the resources they need to scale their solutions, including the Keeling Curve Prize, which awards funding to innovative climate projects.
Zero-Waste Initiative and Sustainable Swag
Last year, West Slope Startup Week launched a zero-waste initiative aimed at minimizing the environmental impact of the event itself. This initiative included measures to reduce waste, such as eliminating single-use plastics, encouraging the use of reusable materials, and providing composting services.
This year, event organizers are expanding the initiative by creating an intentional swag program.
“Event swag can be extremely wasteful,” Vanessa McCrann, the West Slope Startup Week lead organizer, said. “That’s why we decided to make it meaningful and available only to those who truly engage at WSSW.”
WSSW partnered with the startup Topiku, which upcycles plastic waste and textile offcuts, to produce sustainable baseball hats. Topiku conducts product life-cycle assessments in an effort to report their carbon footprint, enabling consumers to understand the impact of their purchase.
The official WSSW hats will only be available on Tuesday night during the Rural Entrepreneurship Networking Celebration, and at undisclosed sessions throughout the week. The new swag program seeks to reward engagement while also minimizing resource use and waste. Each hat contains 510g of CO2 equivalent.
Closing with a Climate Celebration
West Slope Startup Week will close with a final happy hour celebrating the inaugural climate initiative. The event will put a further spin on swag by providing an “upleveling” station for attendees to revamp old event tees, coffee cups, or bandanas.
Event organizers hope this year will serve as a launching point for future climate entrepreneurship on Colorado’s Western Slope.
“Without entrepreneurship on top of innovation, you don’t end up bringing things to market and creating the impact that you need to create,” said Tim Wolters, Founder of CrowdSolve. “Entrepreneurship is critical to being able to solve for climate change.”
