ASC has many environmental programs, but has never adequately tackled one of the thorniest, most difficult challenges in sustainable business — green purchasing. Since 2005, the Environmental Affairs and Purchasing departments have been working to buy products with reduced environmental impact.

Since 2004 we've accomplished the following:

• Switched to 100% post-consumer paper in copiers and printers — that's 12 tons of paper. (Julie Anderson, who used to work for Purchasing, actually gets credit for that one.)
• Purchased 9 tons of Green Seal certified paper products that are produced with fewer chemicals, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and higher levels of post-consumer content.
• Increased the number of clean four-stroke and direct-injection snowmobiles in our fleet to 30% of 90 sleds. These machines significantly reduce emissions of hydrocarbons and particulate matter. Four-stroke engines are cleaner, quieter, and three times more fuel efficient.

 Currently, we are:

• Moving to environmentally friendly cleaning supplies and hand soap for our base facilities.
• Switching to earth-friendly disposable products for our on-mountain restaurants including compostable cups made from corn, plates made from sugarcane or pre-consumer paper, and hot cups that contain pre-consumer or post-consumer paper.
• Buying plastic bags for our retail outlets made with an additive allowing them to begin to break down within 18 months.

These new initiatives represent a shift of approximately $150,000 spent on earth-friendly products.