The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment designated 170 companies as achieving outstanding environmental responsibility and stewardship through a 22-year-old certification program.

“Our top priority is to protect the places we live, learn, work and play,” said John Putnam, the department’s director of environmental programs. “The companies we’re recognizing are helping us make that a reality.”

The Environmental Leadership Program is designed to recognize organizations that “go beyond compliance,” with the highest, gold-level companies having no serious regulatory violations within three years, or criminal offenses within five years.

All businesses, municipalities, government agencies, nonprofits or educational institutions could enter into the program, but participation is concentrated in the Denver metro area. The goals for organizations in the program include greenhouse gas reduction, lowered water usage and waste diversion.

“During the application review process the department will conduct a compliance review of each applicant and/or nomination to the ELP. The compliance review will include consulting available databases and enforcement sources including the EPA and local health departments to obtain compliance information,” CDPHE wrote in a 2018 handbook for the program.

Gold-level entities for this year include Black Hills and Xcel energy, the city and county of Denver and Manitou Springs School District. The vast majority of the 170 designees were in the gold category. See the full list of entities here.