FORT COLLINS - Colorado is taking a frontrunner position in its quest to create a "New Energy Economy" under Gov. Bill Ritter, according to Ritter's newly appointed director of the Governor's Energy Office.

"Colorado is leading the nation in the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency," said Tom Plant, one of two keynote breakfast speakers at Wednesday's Green Summit sponsored by the city of Fort Collins and the Northern Colorado Business Report, held at the Fort Collins Hilton. "We really want to make Colorado a leader in the country."

Plant, a former state representative who was appointed to his post in January, said Colorado is well positioned to enhance its economy through the exploitation of its natural resources, including plentiful wind, solar, geothermal and millions of farmland acres for the production of biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.

Plant told an audience of about 275 that Ritter, elected last November, is committed to making the state a model of renewable energy use and conservation of environmental resources. He noted the legislature's passage of HB 1281 as an example of one of many actions taken by the governor and the legislature this session to advance the use of alternative energy and conserve energy.

The measure, signed by Ritter last month, requires private utilities to increase the amount of electricity produced by renewable energy sources from 3 percent this year to 20 percent by 2020. The bill also requires public utilities to increase their amount from 1 percent in 2008 to 10 percent by 2020.

Plant said all of the utilities in the state voiced approval for the goals, which double previous benchmarks. "It shows a common goal of sharing that vision for the future," he said.

Plant was followed to the podium by Janelle Kearsley, Wal-Mart's director of corporate strategy and sustainability, who said the world's No. 1 retailer is determined to be a leader in energy conservation and recycling, a move that not only improves its public image but also saves it millions.

Kearsley said the Arkansas-based company with stores worldwide began looking at ways to reduce its impact on the environment a few years ago.

"We first looked at the energy efficiency of our buildings and said we're being pretty efficient," she said. "But when we really looked at it we found it was unbelievable what we could do."

Kearsley said Wal-Mart set goals of getting 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources, selling products that sustain the environment and achieving "zero waste." For Wal-Mart, it was a bold move into a new area, she said.

"It's really infusing into the (Wal-Mart) culture an ethic we didn't have before," she said.

Kearsley said one early goal was to make all of the company's truck fleet 25 percent more energy efficient, a move that saved about 10 million gallons of diesel fuel and saved the company about $25 million.

Other cost-saving actions included recycling plastic waste, which saved Wal-Mart $28 million and kept that material out of landfills, and reducing the amount of packaging on toys and other products, saving another $3.5 million annually.

Randy Erickson, assistant manager of the Fort Collins Wal-Mart SuperCenter, joined Kearsley to report his store started its recycling and conservation efforts last year. Since September, it has recycled 263 tons of cardboard and 1,500 cubic feet of plastic. Erickson said the store installed light sensors that are expected to save about $25,000 yearly.

But the biggest success story for the store, he said, has been to compost its food and other organic wastes and convert that material into bagged compost for sale.

Kearsley praised the efforts of the Fort Collins store as indicative of Wal-Mart's new direction.

"If we can replicate that around the country, that's really what we're all about," she said. "It's all about innovation, and we really do see this as the next big strategy for Wal-Mart."

Following the breakfast addresses, a panel convened to discuss one of the hot topics in alternative energy production - wind.

Steve Palomo, with the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Lab kicked off the presentation by explaining that while the technology for wind energy systems was born in the United States, the country has fallen to third in the world for installed wind-power production, behind Germany and Spain. He added, however, that there is a huge untapped potential and that technology and implementation are on an upswing.

"We've grown fourfold since 2000," he said of the U.S. wind-energy output.

Steve Wieland, business development manager for Vestas Wind Systems A/S, echoed the huge growth in the wind-energy market. Denmark-based Vestas, which recently announced it will build its first U.S. wind turbine manufacturing facility in Windsor, is seeing a 20 percent to 30 percent annual increase in the global wind-energy market.

"We're making major investments in capacity," he explained. The 200,000-square-foot Windsor plant will represent a $60 million investment.

Other companies are investing in wind on the demand side, such as Xcel Energy. Rick Thompson, manager of renewable energy purchases for Xcel, explained that the company plans to more than double its wind-energy use from 2006 to 2007.

Kim Jordan, CEO of New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, joined the panel from the end-user perspective. In 1998 New Belgium's employees, who also own a stake in the company, voted to purchase wind power through a program with the city of Fort Collins. The decision made New Belgium the first, all-wind powered brewery.

"It was a really easy and terrific solution for New Belgium," she said.

A free "Climate Wise EnvirOvation" reception, including awards by the city of Fort Collins for local environmental stewardship, was scheduled to follow the Summit, beginning about 3 p.m. Attendees also has the opportunity to visit vendor booths in the atrium of the Hilton.

Other sponsors of the Green Summit included Water Valley, Porter Industries, Northern Colorado Paper and Larimer County Solid Waste.