The Environment Foundation, a collaboration with the Aspen Community Foundation and the Aspen Skiing Company Family Fund, is a nonprofit employee organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the regional environment. One example: we provided a leading grant to the Trust for Public Land to help protect the stunning "High Elk Corridor," pictured at left, which runs from Aspen to Crested Butte and is in danger of being developed.

Why does the foundation exist? It's simple. When we're are not working, we're outside - climbing a mountain, hiking a remote wilderness, kayaking a wild stretch of river, boarding an open bowl, or biking a winding single-track. We realize that our natural environment is being impacted. Through the Environment Foundation we are working to protect habitat, ecosystems, and the biodiversity that we depend upon.

Established in 1998, the Environment Foundation is structured like no other organization in the country and is a model for how corporate America can give back to the natural resource base from which it derives its profit.

The Foundation is governed by a fourteen-member Board of Directors comprised of Aspen Skiing Company employees. Current board members include:

• Rachel Bower, Secretary/Treasurer
• Georgie Bremner
• David Corbin
• Mark Cornish
• Isabelle Falardeau
• Deric Gunshor
• Andy Hanson
• Alyson Heller
• Peter Hoffman
• Sean Keery, Vice Chair
• David Kerr, Chair
• Stephen Luck
• Ryan Miller
• Mike Spayd
• Sue Way

The foundation is funded through a volunteer payroll deduction plan. Each dollar contributed is matched by  the Aspen Community Foundation and Aspen Skiing Company's Family Fund. With employees donating as little as one dollar a week and with a tripling of donations through matching funds, we have donated almost $1,400,000 in twelve years to hundreds of projects.

In general, the foundation funds projects that provide environmental educational opportunities, seek to reduce the impacts of climate change, foster responsible stewardship of natural resources, protect mountain ecosystems, or preserve and create unique opportunities for outdoor recreation. Projects must be innovative, have measurable results, and there must be a community or regional need. We are most interested in making grants to organization that identify and work on the root causes of problems,  with a commitment to long-term change. We look for programs with a provocative direct-action agenda for change and a strategic plan for achieving the organization's goals, buttressed by  strong community support.

For a listing of projects we've funded to date, please see the Environment Foundation's Grants List. 

If you would like a copy of our Grant-making Guidelines and Selection Criteria, or would like to get involved in the Environment Foundation please call, e-mail your request to:

Matthew Hamilton, Executive Director, Environment Foundation mhamilton@aspensnowmass.com