By Shannon Lukens. Courtesy photos.
Yampa Valley Sustainability Council is being renamed. As of Thursday, Oct. 23, it is the Western Resilience Center, to serve as a resource for Western Slope communities in the Yampa Valley. Executive Director Michelle Stewart says there is a lot of excitement because it increases and clarifies the work that is being done now and in the future, to protect the people and places we care about.
“Our name change to Western Resilience Center drives home our mission and the urgent need for all of us to work together to insure that our communities and our natural environments continue to thrive under the rapidly changing, resource limited conditions, wrought by a changing climate.”
More information is at WesternResilience.org
Press Release from Western Resilience Center; Oct. 20, 2025
YVSC is renaming to Western Resilience Center
Yampa Valley Sustainability Council (YVSC) is renaming to Western Resilience Center in order to clarify the organization’s work and its impacts. The rename will take effect Thursday, October 23, 2025, and will include the launch of a revised logo and new website, westernresilience.org.
“YVSC’s name change to Western Resilience Center drives home our mission and the urgent need for all of us to work together to ensure our communities and natural environments continue to thrive under the rapidly changing, resource-limited conditions wrought by a changing climate,” said Michelle Stewart, executive director of Western Resilience Center.
As the key sustainability organization serving Northwest Colorado, YVSC has focused its work over the past five years on advancing climate action, or actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase resilience to the impacts of changing climate, collaboratively with governments, businesses, organizations and residents.
As Western Resilience Center, the organization’s focus, mission, vision and core programs remain the same.
“We continue to serve the Yampa Valley region as the same place-based, nonpartisan, solutions-oriented organization — our new name more clearly reflects the work we are already doing, and the work we must continue to do, to build a healthy environment and thriving community,” said Sarah Loughran, chair of the Western Resilience Center Board of Directors.
Stewart is energized by the name change because the organization’s work is “building western resilience, and that’s worth clarifying through the name change.”
“Here in the Yampa Valley, we are working collaboratively to forge clean energy economies, connected and electrified transportation systems, develop circular economies, regenerate forests in post-burn areas, restore riparian and wetland ecosystems to retain more water in the basin, all while building connected, activated communities that care and get involved,” said Stewart. “This work is essential to ensuring that the people and places we cherish, in our iconic western geography, are healthy and thrive now and into the future.”
Western Resilience Center aims to scale up its work aggregating on-the-ground successes as case studies and models for learning, resource sharing and scaled impacts at the state level and beyond.
“We are already working with several western slope Colorado partners and governments to share knowledge and problem-solve, and our goal moving forward is to compile data about our challenges to help the state understand and better serve the needs and realities of our rural Western part of the state,” said Stewart. “Building Western resilience is an active and collaborative pursuit — it won’t happen unless more of us come together to roll up our sleeves, pool our knowledge and get to work.”
YVSC’s rename builds on its 16-year history. The organization was established as a 501(c)3 in 2009 by a group of dedicated community members who saw the need for community education and action around key sustainability issues like recycling, green building and building code updates. YVSC’s Board and volunteers created the Green Buildings Tour, a Talking Green monthly speaker event series, ReTree and Community Drop-off recycling events.
“YVSC’s grassroots foundations literally root the organization in our community in important and beloved ways,” said Sarah Jones, YVSC’s first executive director from 2012-2019, who joined the Board in 2020. “Our current staff and Board continue to meet and connect with our founders and early volunteers, and be inspired by our stories about the work and sweat and volunteerism that went into establishing the organization we are today. We are grateful and deeply proud of our history and roots in the Yampa Valley.”
The organization has now grown to 15 full-time staff members working across energy, transportation, waste diversion, land and water resilience, and community engagement; runs an internship program that has trained over 55 interns since 2022; and partners with over 90 organizations each year to advance programs and projects.
The rebrand will take effect on Thursday, Oct. 23, complete with the launch of a new website at westernresilience.org.
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Western Resilience Center (formerly known as Yampa Valley Sustainability Council (YVSC)) brings people and science together through action to protect the lands and communities of Western Colorado, building resilience for our way of life and the natural world we love. Learn more at westernresilience.org.