Activism

SUPPORT FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY

In March 2015, Aspen Skiing Company joined 378 other employers and employer organizations in signing anamicus curiaebrief filed to the U.S. Supreme Court urging the High Court to consider the burdens imposed on both employers and employees by a fractured legal landscape with no uniform rule on same-sex marriage.Aspen Skiing Company, as well as other employers across the nation, share a desire to attract and retain a talented workforce. As the brief pointed out, most Americans live in jurisdictions where same-sex marriages are recognized. However, the laws of many states continued to prohibit same-sex couples from marrying, and decline to recognize these valid, existing marriages from other states. This makes it hard to recruit and retain good employees, and to allocate benefits in patchwork legal framework. In coordination with our fellow signatories, Aspen Skiing Company presented empirical evidence showing the value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and the detrimental effect of the absence of a single, uniform law in this area.

PROTECT OUR WINTERS (POW)

Aspen Skiing Company has been an avid supporter of the Protect Our Winters campaign, with our Vice President of Sustainability, Auden Schendler, serving as the current Board Chairman. Together as an industry, we have helped create a movement to lobby Congress to take action on climate change.

We are so committed to Protect Our Winters that every Aspen Snowmass uniform includes the POW logo on the sleeve, in an effort to raise awareness with our guests and demonstrate our values.

Check out POW's latest report on how climate change is impacting the world of winter sports.

To learn more about Protect Our Winters, go to www.protectourwinters.org.

CLIMATE ACTIVIST'S ROADMAP

Protect Our Winters created the Climate Activist's Roadmap to make your lives easier. Seems like we are bombarded on a daily basis with stories of climate impacts on people's lives and livelihoods along with a recent spate of news about shifting United States priorities slowing global progress on policies that might ameliorate these impacts. There is so much information out there, it’s tough to know what to do, much less know that you’re actually making a difference.The Roadmap gives you high impact actions that do have an influence on our elected officials. They are actions too many discuss, but too few actually complete. These actions include calling/emailing or even writing your elected official, learning more about the issue so that the next time you are debating climate science you have the tools, using social media to raise awareness, spending your money with businesses that share your values and making changes in your own life.

Check our the Climate Activist's Roadmap.

XCEL’S RENEWABLE ENERGY PLAN

Aspen Skiing Company has teamed up with new sister organization Alterra Mountain Co. and nonprofit partner Protect Our Winters (POW) to support a proposal by Xcel Energy to close two coal-burning power plants. In exchange, Colorado’s biggest utility company is asking for proposals to construct 1 GW wind, 600 MW solar and 700 MW natural gas power plants from scratch. This shift to clean energy would move the state from 29% renewable to 55% by 2026. In January of 2018, Auden Schendler — Skico’s Senior Vice President of Sustainability and Community Engagement — provided written testimony to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission on behalf of Aspen Skiing Company, Alterra and nonprofit partner Protect Our Winters (POW) in support of Xcel’s proposal and detailing how the decision benefits the ski industry and the environment as a whole. The commission will most likely vote on the plan in March. Read Auden Schendler’s testimony.

For more information and updates on the passage of Xcel’s plan, check out the following links:

• Why a Big Utility is Embracing Wind and Solar
• Aspen Skiing Co., Alterra Lobby for Xcel's Renewable Energy Plan
• Xcel Energy Receives Shockingly Low Bids for Colorado Electricity from Renewable Sources

BICEP (BUSINESS FOR INNOVATIVE CLIMATE & ENERGY POLICY)

Aspen Skiing Company joined BICEP in 2009 because it strongly believes that the scope and scale of the climate problem means businesses need to rethink their approach to climate change. For that reason, we have implemented industry leading energy efficiency and renewable energy problems, and have played a primary role as a policy advocate through BICEP.

Learn more about BICEP.

AMICUS BRIEF

In August of 2006, ASC filed an Amicus Brief on behalf of MA v. EPA arguing that the EPA needs to regulate carbon dioxide pollution and has the authority to do so under the Clean Air Act. In April 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Massachusetts, whose position our brief supported. At the time of this ruling Auden Schendler, ASC's Executive Director for Community and Environmental Responsibility, also testified in Congress on the threats climate change poses to the ski industry.

SAVE SNOW CAMPAIGN

Launched in the fall of 2006, the Save Snow campaign featured a series three full page ads that ran as part of Aspen Skiing Company's winter advertising campaign. In 2007 new ads were produced featuring local athletes. In 2008 ads featured ASC employees doing their jobs in sustainable ways. These ads were an integral part of ASC's overall marketing strategy and sought to create heightened awareness of climate impacts on the snow sports industry while encouraging guests to take action.