Proud Parents Travel from China to See Daughter Graduate With LLM Degree

From left Jiaxi Wang's mother, Don Smith,
Lucy Daberkow, Ms. Wang's father, Ms. Wang

The December graduation for students from Denver Law's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Graduate Program was a proud occasion for many graduating students and none more than Jiaxi Wang.  Ms. Wang is from Chengde, China, which is located near Beijing.

Ms. Wang's parents traveled from Chengde to Denver to watch their daughter graduate with a Master's in Law degree.

Don Smith, director of the program, said, "Graduation day is always a proud moment in the lives of our students and their families.  And we are especially proud of international students, such as Jiaxi, who add such richness and diversity to our program.  Jiaxi was a student of mine and I got to know her well.  She will make major contributions to protecting our world's environment, especially in the development of more renewable energy.  All of us at Denver Law will watch her career develop with much admiration and pride."

MRLS Alumna Discusses Her Work with United Nations

Ambika Chawla

Ambika Chawla  graduated from the MRLS Program in December 2012 and currently works as the “Cities and Climate Change Specialist” for the United Nations in Vietnam. She recently told us about her current responsibilities.

"In terms of the scope of my work, I conduct research and writing to develop arguments for why Vietnam must introduce a comprehensive national urban and climate policy which encompasses strategies for both greenhouse gas emissions mitigation and climate change adaptation. 


I just completed writing the UN’s official policy paper on cities and climate change for Vietnam. In addition, I am co-author of the UN’s Green Growth City Development Strategy (GG-CDS) for Da Nang City (Vietnam’s fourth largest city). The GG-CDS aims for Da Nang City to become the first “ecological city” in Vietnam and in the Asia-Pacific Region. 

There are many ways in which the MRLS Program prepared me for this position. For one, I often have to give presentations about my work at UN Conferences and Seminars. The public speaking skills that I learned in the MRLS course have prepared me to take on these challenging public speaking assignments. 

I have to review the environmental enforcement and compliance policies of cities in Vietnam. In addition, I have to analyze Vietnam’s climate change policies, as well as international climate change policies. I have no doubt that the environmental law courses that I took in the MRLS course prepared me for this exciting and challenging position. 

I really love my work! My colleagues are from all parts of the world and I am constantly challenged and learning from my talented and dedicated co-workers. More importantly, I have no doubt that my work will contribute towards making this world a more socially just and environmentally sustainable place."

We are proud to count Ambika as one of our graduates and wish her continued success in her sustainability and climate change projects with the United Nations. 

Western Governor's Association Releases New Wildlife Map

The Western Governor's Association (WGA) is a non-partisan organization of U.S. Governors in the western region. The organization seeks to address important policy issues in the west, and enhance the social and economic structures of the region. The WGA focuses on collaborative innovation between state governors as well as Canadian representatives.

The WSA recently released a new wildlife habitat mapping database, which has been five years in the making. The Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT) rates resources on a numerical scale, with 6 meaning least crucial. The states involved with the projects have determined their individual priorities based on habitat condition, and the economic and recreational importance of the individual species to the area.

A snapshot of CHAT courtesy of the WGA website

The effort to create CHAT stemmed from the realization that endangered species and habitat preservation were not contained by state boundary lines, nor were planning projects confined within individual states. The GIS mapping project has been praised by developers as well as conservationists.

Although CHAT doesn't provide any regulatory authority, it can assist developers when considering where to develop and will serve conservationists by highlighting important areas. It is hoped that CHAT will bring about greater certainty and predictability to planning efforts in the west.

To watch a WGA webinar on CHAT, follow this link.
For more information, visit the WGA CHAT website.

LLM Alumna's Sustainability Focused Company Partners with City of Boulder

Eco-Loyalty Program Targets Reducing Consumer Waste

LLM alumna, Leslie Weise, founded BEECO Corp. in 2011 with a goal of creating consumer friendly technology and tools to engage more people to incorporate sustainability throughout their lives. "We are consumers in most aspects of our lives, from family, work and school to social and recreational activities, our purchasing decisions not only reflect the price we are willing or able to pay for goods and services, but also the values the companies who manufacture and sell the products represent," said Weise, the President of the Colorado-based business.

BEECO is currently focused on launching several programs that all relate to each other to enhance consumer awareness and in turn promote the sustainability products and services industry. The City of Boulder has chosen to partner with BEECO to promote BEECO Rewards, an eco-loyalty program that has inherent rewards built in to both retail businesses who subscribe to the program, as well as their customers who shop at their stores with their own reusable bags and to-go mugs.

Customers download the free app to their mobile phones to track the points they earn each time they shop with their reusable container (and forego taking single use disposable bags and coffee cups) while shopping. Once they have earned enough points, users of the program can redeem them for free stuff (products, discounts) that are offered by each store. The City of Boulder has found the program to be a great complement to the bag fee that went into place earlier this year, so that residents and visitors feel they have the opportunity to earn rewards for doing the right thing for the environment, rather than simply pay a .10 cent fee each time they forget to bring their reusable bag when shopping.

The Boulder's Daily Camera paper recently featured BEECO's program, which the City of Boulder has named Brought it Boulder Rewards. More information about the Boulder program can be found here, and you can learn more about BEECO and its sustainability programs for businesses here. If you know of any retail businesses or organizations that would be a good fit for BEECO Rewards, please contact Leslie Weise at leslie@beeco.us.

Colorado Energy Coalition Issues New Report: "Resource Rich Colorado"

Resource Rich Colorado Report Cover

The Colorado Energy Coalition (CEC) was formed in 2006, as a organization of diverse interests dedicated to strengthening the business climate in Colorado which supports all sectors of the energy industry. The CEC seeks to brand Colorado as the "Balanced Energy Capital of the West."

Resource Rich Colorado: Colorado's National and Global Position in the Energy Economy is the fifth annual publication which focuses on analyzing key data from a variety of public and private sources to assess Colorado's position in a competitive nation-wide and international energy market.

The recent publication, released December 4th, evaluates Colorado's competitive position in the following sectors: oil, natural gas, coal, renewables, power generation, environment and sustainability, policies and programs, and employment and industry.

The report issued the following rankings for Colorado compared to the nation:

• Second for the amount of square feet per capita that is certified as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
• Fifth in natural gas production, sixth for natural gas reserves
• Fifth in installed solar capacity
• And tenth in installed wind capacity

To access the full report, follow this link.
To view the executive summary of the report, follow this link.

Denver Business Journal's "Who's Who in Energy" Includes Five With Close Ties to Denver Law

Five individuals with close ties to Denver Law have been recognized in the 2013-2014 "Who's Who in Energy" published by the Denver Business Journal. Among these five are graduates as well as current or former adjunct professors.

The publication described its Who's Who listing as "the movers and shakers in the ever-changing fast-moving energy industry..." 

Who's Who in Energy noted that Colorado ranks 10th in the country in the amount of wind-based power the state can produce, ninth in oil production, fifth in gas production, 11th in coal production, a combination of energy sources that the publication described as an "all of the above" strategy.

The five Denver Law-affiliated individuals are:

• Dan Grossman, Rocky Mountain Regional Director for the Environmental Defense Fund and Denver Law graduate
• James King, Of Counsel at BakerHostetler and Adjunct Professor at Denver Law
• Pete Maysmith, Executive Director of Conservation Colorado and graduate of Denver Law
• Tom Sansonetti, partner at Holland & Hart and former Distinguished Natural Resources Law Practitioner in Residence
• Rebecca Watson, shareholder at Wellborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley PC in Denver and former Distinguished Natural Resources Law Practitioner in Residence and Denver Law graduate

Don Smith, Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program at Denver Law, said, "The inclusion of these energy leaders in the Who's Who publication reflects not only the strength of Denver Law's natural resources program but also the types of people who are actively involved in the life of the program and the law school.  All of us at Denver Law congratulate these impressive professionals."