In November 2024, Santa Fe County Employees enrolled in a training course with ACNM for stormwater inspection training. This training will certify Santa Fe County employees in the Public Works, Growth Management and Community Development Departments to inspect storm water management for a Construction General Permit. A primary focus of the training was to learn about Best Management Practices (BMPs) that should be considered on every construction site and addressed accordingly, through EPA regulation.

Adding this certification to the tool belts of Santa Fe County staff will help increase education and awareness within key Departments and Divisions of the County and ideally, increase expertise and criteria requirements in order for construction projects to better follow EPA requirements that will efficiently and effectively manage stormwater. There are many projects in which an employee, that is a certified stormwater inspector, will be able to provide support in protecting from water contamination. Ensuring contaminants are eliminated from water before entering major waterways is the primary responsibility of this certification, which ultimately has an impact on not only the project at hand but also natural resources that rely on stormwater. For example, a rain garden relies on water to build continued soil health. The sustainability team has worked to install large raingardens in two facilities in the past two years and prior to that, planted hundreds of trees and pollinator species in key stormwater prevalent and riparian areas. The County is currently working with a subject expert on the creation of a Master Plan for more Green Storm Water Infrastructure (GSI) throughout the County. GSI and strategic planting examples found in the Nature & Land section of the Sustainability's website pages further serve as living demonstrations for local residents and developers to learn more about the benefits of stormwater capture in a local, data tracked setting. Effective stormwater management builds soil across the landscapes of the county and reduces erosion and contaminants. Keeping water clean and reducing contaminates as much as possible through the power of nature, from harmful toxins/sediment commonly found in construction sites, it's an incredibly important endeavor that keeps our community landscapes healthy and more resilient. Sediment control is most effective when addressed prior to construction through a stormwater management plan. Having BMPs in place to mitigate sediment transportation is a key aspect an inspector with this certification will monitor.

Unless you are one of the 2% of Santa Fe County households classified as energy burdened, paying your utility bills each month may go largely unnoticed. Yet, Santa Fe County billing is another story; imagine opening your mailbox to find two hundred utility bills, each with different due dates and corresponding facility meters spanning close to 2,000 square miles.

This is a daily reality for the County Finance and Fire staff who manage a portfolio of over 100 County facilities and nearly 300 utility accounts. Each month, significant efforts are required to manage utility budgets, ensure bills are paid on time to identify and correct billing errors.

Utility billing data such as energy use from monthly charges are monitored and tracked by staff in separate Divisions: Finance, Facilities and Sustainability. Facility maintenance is the full-time job of numerous County employees, who traverse the County from Stanley to Chimayo, responding to everything from leaky faucets to broken HVAC systems, daily. While the County makes active efforts to perform preventative maintenance and frequently inventories the condition of County facilities and assets, many maintenance issues are only identified when something stops working. Less obvious issues such as underperforming building systems or faulty solar inverters may not be identified immediately, leading to increased utility costs and missed greenhouse gas reduction opportunities.

To improve the efficiency of these processes, Santa Fe County will be installing a County Energy Management System known as the Balanced Resource Acquisition and Information Network or (BRAIN) over the course of the next six months. Modeled after a similar system developed for the City of Albuquerque, the BRAIN will expand the amount of utility and building system data that can be collected and help County staff turn this data into actionable insights leading to significant cost savings, energy efficiency improvements and operational efficiencies. The Application Programming Interface (API) of the BRAIN will request monthly billing data from utility providers such as PNM and Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative (JMEC) and compare current billing data against historic use to identify when buildings are underperforming in real time. The platform will additionally provide dashboards for tracking and allow for the rapid identification of billing errors which has the potential to lead to significant cost savings as well.

Through integrating building systems such as HVAC units and solar inverters within the BRAIN, County staff anticipates increased granular insight into facilities performance trends, further leading to energy efficiency improvements. A study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficiency Economy found that building information systems such as the BRAIN can lead to energy savings of 5 to 10%. Centralizing energy data, is a best practice for SMART building operation providing sustainability staff the tools needed to quickly generate building and portfolio level energy use, cost and GHG emissions reports, improve upon planning decisions and allow for the rapid development of GHG emissions inventories.

Taken together, Sustainability staff estimate that the development of a County Energy Management System can potentially save the County over $90,000 annually and lead to a reduction in emissions of 85.14 MT CO₂e. Cost savings are expected to be realized through reduced operations and maintenance costs due to less staff time required for managing data and maintenance trips, reduced billing errors, and facility energy efficiency improvements.

The development of the BRAIN presents a unique opportunity to reimagine how energy is managed within Santa Fe County and has the potential to transform the burden of monthly utility bills into an opportunity. Needless to say, all of those involved are excited to see the improvements and savings. Stay tuned for the first performance report once the application is completely operational in 2025!

Santa Fe County was a proud sponsor of the Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival 2024, which was held in the second week of November this year. This event is an annual tradition and exemplifies the inspiration in discarded materials and objects for creating one of a kind wearable and wall-able art and much more. The ritual fashion show on the first evening is especially jaw dropping for young and old. Don’t let the label fool you though! The “trashed outfits” are master crafted with intention and fun, or may contain more serious awareness messaging and education, and many of the outfits go way beyond the definition of a costume. They are downright marketable!

This year, as we pause for the holidays to consider gifts, and exchange our tokens of appreciation, I am again reminded of a favorite Auntie who decided enough was enough when Santa's list was getting to be too over the top and began a custom of allowing only handmade gift giving in her immediate family. She accomplished this feat many years ago, and it has since spread to the next generation, the appeal recognized long before DIY movements made such shifts popular. Since then, I have learned of a number of families and individuals who have chosen to do the same and are delighted at where the decision has led over the years—more focus on together time and more emphasis on ways to reuse waste throughout the year! Perhaps, this is the perfect year as we are reminded by extreme weather events and the precarious outcome of COP29 for emission reductions and climate equity on the news, to say “no” to more off the shelf gifts; why not reuse those scrap pieces in your closet or drawer and reconfigure it into a gift instead of an item made from a more limited and precious natural resource? It doesn’t have to be complicated: consider learning origami with recycled paper for a tree ornament or cool earrings! Most of us can agree that the world has plenty of stuff, so let’s challenge ourselves to recreate from what already exists and in so doing, leave less of a waste trail on the planet and more of an impression of effort and creativity on our loved ones. As the old saying goes, your trash is another’s treasure, but I like to add, “your heart and hands together make the real pleasure!”

Happiest of holidays to all from Team Sustainability! --Jacqueline Beam