To paraphrase Thoreau, "What's the use of a ski area without a tolerable planet to put it on?" Aspen Skiing Company recognizes the importance of maintaining a healthy world beyond ski area boundaries. Our environmental work reaches to every ocean in the world through our sustainble seafood policy; into the wilderness through our support of the 1999 Colorado Wilderness Act; and as far away as Eastern Europe through our donations of warm clothing. We'd even include the atmosphere in our purview: after all, our purchases of wind energy and wind energy credits, and our energy efficiency measures help protect the planet from global warming and keep the air clean. But we're not delusional, either: we know our business has a huge impact, uses enormous amounts of energy, and may never be sustainble. But we're trying.  In this photo, students from Colorado Rocky Mountain School help revegetate our dirt halfpipe. Making halfpipes out of dirt saves water and energy--about four million gallons of water per pipe, as well as roughly $15,000 in electricity costs from snowmaking. Revegetating it properly prevents weeds, and helps provide better forage for large mammals like Elk.  

Below, some information on our use of  clean, renewable biodiesel in all ASC snowcats, a program started in 2001 and ending in 2008 as new cleaner diesel standards kick in.  

On ASC's four mountains, we burn 260,000 gal of diesel annually, powering snowcats that turn Aspen"s powder into its famously manicured trails. Diesel also runs the buses that transport skiers and workers up this long mountain valley; and diesel runs backup motors on electric lifts that take skiers up the mountain. The problems of diesel are well known. It creates high particulate emissions and contributes to local air pollution that often exceeds U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. Diesel exhaust contains carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic, benzene, and formaldehyde. Although critical to operations, diesel also compromises our product: a beautiful outdoor experience.

We have not been able to identify a manufacturer of non-diesel snowcats, so seven years ago, ASC decided to explore cleaner fuels, in particular blends of soy-based diesel, a renewable product known as biodiesel. Pure biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have passed the rigorous health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act. The results, submitted to the U.S. EPA in 2000, show biodiesel reduces toxic emissions and is biodegradable and free of sulfur. Biodiesel cuts emissions of particulate matter, unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and sulfates by varying degrees. For every unit of fossil energy needed to make biodiesel, 2.51 units of energy are gained.

In the winter of 2002, ASC experimented with an 80% diesel/20% biodiesel blend. Mechanics noticed that the fuel, which makes snowcat exhaust smell like french fries, radically reduced black tailpipe smoke and that the snowcats ran smoother, a result of biodiesel’s higher lubricity, a quality that also extends the life of mechanical components. Based on our testing, ASC switched its entire fleet of snowcats to biodiesel. Benefits include hydrocarbon emissions reductions of 20% and CO and particulate reductions of 10%. The one drawback is that biodiesel typically increases NOx emissions by 2%.

In 2007, new, clean diesel standards kicked in, making ASC's use of biodiesel less valuable. In addition, as equity issues have come to light around biodiesel, ASC has decided to phase out the fuel in 2008.