Green Purchasing

ASC has many environmental programs, but has never adequately tackled one of the thorniest, most difficult challenges in sustainable business — green purchasing. Since 2004, 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 more than 200 tons of green office supplies and earth-friendly disposable foodservice products, including Cascades Rolland Enviro 100 for all office paper. It's 100% post-consumer fiber, processed chlorine-free.
• Increased the number of clean four-stroke and direct-injection snowmobiles in our fleet to more than 80% 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.
• Continued to lease the most-efficient snowcats available. Using a 2-year rotation for these vehicles allows ASC to have one of the least-polluting fleets in the industry.
• Established a relationship with Sylvania lighting to provide low-cost energy efficient lighting.
• Using environmentally friendly cleaning supplies and hand soap for our base facilities.
• Buying plastic bags for our retail outlets made with an additive allowing them to begin to break down within 18 months. 

Below, details on more initiatives.

Eliminating Water Bottles at The Little Nell
The Little Nell is now providing guests with pitchers of cool, refreshing Aspen tap water instead of Evian. The pitchers are from Anderson Ranch Arts Center, located in Snowmass, and were designed/sculpted by Doug Casebeer. This switch saves $37,000 and eliminates more than 52,000 bottles annually, while supporting local artisans. (As a bow to reality, however, bottled water will still be available for purchase.) Kudos to Sr. VP of Hospitality Paul Cherrett, General Manager John Speers and Rooms Division Manager Lisa Price.

Fine Dining That's Good for the Earth
Ryan Hardy, Montagna's chef, brings sustainability to the plate every night. He eliminated all commercial beef, using grass-fed Milagro Ranch beef from Carbondale instead. Niman Ranch, a leading purveyor of sustainable meats, now supplies The Little Nell with 6,200 pounds of bacon annually in addition to a variety of other pork products. Ryan also cures his own ham, salumi, and pancetta – using all organic pork and as few nitrates as possible. Fifty percent of Montagna's summer produce comes from local farms, and they buy 15% of their winter produce locally. The Little Nell spends over $1 million on local food each year. These purchasing decisions are major contributions to the local economy. And the word is getting out: Ryan was recently featured on CNN.

Jet Towels
Each year the Sundeck uses 120 cases of paper: unrolled it would stretch almost 95 miles – that’s equivalent to riding the gondola and skiing down Aspen Mountain 24 times while unrolling paper the whole time. In 2007, Tracy Duhe installed two Mitsubishi Jet Towels, air powered dryers that work in six seconds, and is planning on installing two additional units in 2008. Guests, and trees, love them. (This product represents a compromise between waste and energy use. The units draw .65 kW, equivalent to a small space heater. However, there are impacts to hauling trash up and down the hill, too. Did we do the analysis as to which had the least impact? No. We have bigger fish to fry.)

Laying Pipe for the Future
The Buttermilk Snowmaking team of Don “Ogre” Paullin, Jim Hamlin, Curt Clemetson, Alex Hohenzollern, Kevin Parcott, Gabe Ross, and Harry Lynk installed 1,500 feet of iron ductile pipe in 2007, and a total of 6,000 feet since 2006. The installation is part of a multi-year plan to replace 25-year-old steel snowmaking pipe with iron ductile pipe, a green product made from recycled steel in Austria. The pipe lasts for more than 50 years and is coated with a smooth cement liner that nearly eliminates hydraulic friction while creating efficiencies for the pumps, as well as minimizing water leaks over time. Once pipe is installed it can be backfilled right away, minimizing the amount of open ground, run-off and erosion. Buttermilk was the first ski area to adopt this product in the U.S. Since then many ski areas in North America have followed suit…including our own Aspen Mountain.

Organic/Locally Grown Food Fair at Buttermilk
On November 15th, 2007, former Snowmass Club Executive Chef Scott McCurdy organized an organic food show at Bumps at Buttermilk for area restaurants and ASC restaurant managers. Vendors included Organic Valley, Colorado Pride, Coleman and Horizon Organic. During the 2007-2008 season Tracy Duhe at the Sundeck and Lee Solomon at Merry-Go-Round served Bobo’s Organic Breakfast Bars from Boulder. In addition, Sundeck served Coleman Natural beef burgers and Merry-Go-Round offered a burger using locally raised Milagro Ranch beef.