Vail Resorts Wishes Everyone a Happy Earth Day and Offers Some Easy Tips for Everyone to Help Make the Earth a Little Greener
At Vail Resorts we are committed to preserving and caring for our communities and the spectacular natural environment that surrounds our resorts. Through Vail Resorts Echo, the Company’s corporate stewardship program, Vail Resorts commits to continuing its leadership role in environmental stewardship.
Here are a few tips from our environmental experts on how everyone can become an environmental steward in their daily lives:
- Make a contribution to your local community and schedule a volunteer day (you can even treat yourself following with a discounted night at an area hotel if you jump on a Give & Getaway project - www.giveandgetaway.com.
- Support your local library and reduce waste by checking out books, videos and dvds
- Donate winter sports equipment in good condition or recycle old skis and snowboards through a Specialty Sports Venture outlet.
- Tune up your bike and commit to commute to work or run an errand or two a week on your bike – good for you and the planet.
- Change a Light – join the EPA Change a Light Effort http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=change_light.changealight_index.
- Skier or rider….Make plans to volunteer for your local mountain’s cleanup day.
- When shopping focus on buying local.
- Participate in your town or county’s composting program.
- Don't leave your car idling. Idlewise! (Vail Resorts’ effort for not letting snowmobiles idle when in use on the mountain.)
- Use a reusable bottle and refill versus buying plastic water bottles (At Vail Resorts we offer our guests the option while they're here on vacation through Water on the Rocks in our owned and operated lodging properties)
About Vail Resorts Echo
Vail Resorts Echo, the Company’s social responsibility and environmental stewardship program, enables us to preserve and care for our communities and the spectacular natural environment that surrounds our resorts. It’s a philosophical approach to how we operate our business, being continually aware of how our decisions and actions resonate with our five stakeholders: our employees, shareholders, guests, communities and the environment. Vail Resorts Echo encompasses three core efforts --charitable giving, volunteerism and environmental stewardship.
Through Vail Resorts Echo, the Company’s corporate stewardship program, Vail Resorts commits to continuing its leadership role in environmental stewardship. Environmental Stewardship for Vail Resorts means more than responsibility, it means interdependence. Our resorts operate in the midst of some of the world’s greatest natural environments, and we in return are compelled to care for and preserve them. Currently, Vail Resorts Echo is focused on healthy forests and clean water through its partnership with the US Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation on the Hayman Restoration Partnership, the state’s largest forest restoration project, and one of the largest public-private partnerships of its kind in the country. The Company is also significantly reducing our energy consumption with a stated goal of a 10 percent reduction by the end of 2010. In the first year of the project, Vail Resorts achieved a 6 percent reduction. Bringing together a comprehensive environmental program, Vail Resorts Echo also is:
- Continuing the substantial recycling program - the largest on-mountain program in the world.
- Maintaining and growing a comprehensive composting program at selected resorts.
- Paperless by 2011: The Company plans to eliminate all internally used paper by the end of 2011.
- An EPA Energy Star partner that places the Company among many industry leaders working to advance energy conservation and efficiency.
- Appetite for Life. A commitment to serve high quality, organic, natural and gluten free food at the Company’s on-mountain restaurants and five-star resort dining experiences.
- Sustainable building. Partnering with the University of Colorado to create green building standards and a large-scale database of green materials for all contractors and developers to use, and that Vail Resorts will apply to all projects both on and off the mountain.
- Committing to green development, including the Green Globes approved One Ski Hill Place in Breckenridge and many more.
- Green Weddings and Green Meetings
In addition, Vail Resorts and the National Forest Foundation, the non-profit arm of the U.S. Forest Service, have partnered to raise up to $500,000 per year for local conservation projects that improve and enhance the forests in and around our resorts. This guest donation program has helped local non-profits build trails, improve wildlife habitat, mitigate pine beetle effects and improve the overall health of the White River and Lake Tahoe forests. Building on the success of this program, Vail Resorts has developed similar guest donation programs including:
• National Park Foundation: Snake River Lodge and Spa and the Jackson Tennis & Golf Club joined the Grand Teton Lodging Company with a guest donation program to the Grand Teton National Park Foundation to fund wildlife initiatives and conservation programs.
• Hyde Sate Park: La Posada has just introduced a guest donation program to benefit Santa Fe’s Hyde State Park for trail and steam restoration.
• SurfRiders: Partnering with Miami, our RockResort property in Miami, guest donations will help fund on sand dune restoration work.
About Vail Resorts
Vail Resorts, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is the leading mountain resort operator in the United States. The Company's subsidiaries operate the mountain resort properties of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone mountain resorts in Colorado, Heavenly Mountain Resort in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada, and the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The Company's subsidiary, RockResorts, a luxury resort hotel company, manages casually elegant properties across the United States and the Caribbean. Vail Resorts Development Company is the real estate planning, development and construction subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc. Vail Resorts is a publicly held company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MTN). The Vail Resorts company website is www.vailresorts.com and the consumer website is www.snow.com.