There's no place like Colorado for people like myself who have a passion for nature and startups, particularly when the two are combined.  Sustainability plays a huge role in both the culture and the economy of Colorado. It is hard not to appreciate the natural environment while living in Colorado, it is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.  Additionally, there is also a very independent, entrepreneurial culture that breeds a high proportion of startups.  Naturally, the two frequently combine which has resulted in Colorado becoming a hotbed for startups focused on sustainability.

Sustainability is not only important to startups with "green" products or services, there are many traditional companies that have become leaders in sustainable business practices.  For example, take Rally Software, one of 24 b-corporations located in Colorado.  Rally Software has dedicated themselves not only to becoming the leader in Agile application life-cycle management (ALM) but has has also set the goal for themselves to get to Net Positive by 2020.  

There is a wide range of sustainable companies in Colorado, from startups to publicly traded companies.  Many of them are utilizing cutting edge technologies while others are built around natural products. Many are reflective of major industries in the region while others have spurred development for less represented sectors.  Colorado is well known for cleantech, with over 150 member companies associated with the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association (CCIA).  Among the leading drivers for cleantech are the numerous national laboratories located here in the state.  There have also been many extremely successful sustainable product and retail companies such as EcoProducts, Celestial Seasonings, and Horizon Organic.   Recently, many cleanweb companies have developed at the intersection of sustainability and IT including a startup that I am a part of, H2Lo, which is building SaaS software coupled with smart residential irrigation systems (pardon the self-endorsement).

Sustainability is entrenched within the identity of the state, as is entrepreneurship.  Yet sustainability is a fairly vague term that is thrown around a lot with many meanings and interpretations for it.  Before digging into the role it plays for many companies and sectors, we need to dig into the question, "What is Sustainability?"