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I recently visited Grand Targhee Resort outside of Driggs, ID and got to encounter first-hand this celebrated ski area that gets more big dumps than nearly any other. True to form, it snowed 12 inches the night I arrived, followed by two bluebird powder days.
Along with the epic skiing, what consistently impresses me about Grand Targhee Resort is their dedication to running a sustainable operation. Though their ski lifts are powered by coal-burning power plants, they offset 100% of their electricity use with wind energy credits. They also exclusively use biodiesel in all of their snowcats, have a comprehensive resort-wide recycling program (which has helped them to offset their waste output by 42%), and offer generous incentives to carpoolers. Grand Targhee is clearly leading by example and showing other resorts what they can do to operate more sustainably. And people are paying attention. Skiing Magazine has recognized Grand Targhee as the “Greenest Ski Resort,” and Clif Bar presented the resort with their acclaimed Golden Eagle Award for Overall Environmental Excellence.
Two people working on this successful strategic sustainability program are Shannon Brooks Hamby, Marketing Director, and Christina Thomure, Director of Sustainable Operations. I met both of them when I was at the resort last year filming my documentary Nature Propelled (check out this excerpt from the film to learn more about Grand Targhee).
I got the opportunity to meet up again with Christina on this visit and she talked about the difficulties that come with trying to reach ambitious sustainability goals. Yet despite many challenges, they reduced their energy usage by 14 percent last year, and they have set even higher goals for 2010. One of them is eliminating the use of disposable water bottles and installing new water bottle filling stations throughout the resort. Not only will this cost a lot of money to implement, but they are sacrificing the revenue earned on the sale of bottled water on the mountain, which adds up to $14,000 annually. The fact that they are willing to lose that revenue in order to do the socially responsible thing says a lot about this resort and the people who run it.
For all of these reasons, Grand Targhee has become my ski area of choice!
For the latest Elements Tour news please visit www.naturepropelled.com and www.facebook.com/elementstour.
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Hi Seth! Thanks for the great post. Just wanted to clear up some misinformation on our sustainability efforts. We no longer offset our lift electricity with wind energy credits. We have instead funneled those funds into retrofitting our existing buildings with energy efficient upgrades (the idea being to reduce our use instead of offset it). One of our big efforts this year is around educating our employees and guests to reduce their electricity use as well. Stay tuned for results and the launch of programs around this initiative!
Shannon – thanks for clarifying. I think it’s great that you and your team are so transparent with your efforts and the “WHY” behind what you guys are doing. Sounds like fantastic education for your customers AND even more, the snow industry. We appreciate Grand Targhee for taking the lead. I’ll definitely be sending this to our friends at Mt Hood Meadows, Timberline, our friends in Tahoe. Wend will definitely keep following your progress!
Shannon! sorry I missed you on this visit. It is great to see thing progress, and I’m proud to be an ambassador for Grand Targhee! I visited over 40 ski areas last season, and you guys would get my golden eagle award too if i had one. Anyways, I’m really looking forward to bringing the Elements Tour back to Targhee for the music festival this summer. Until then
Great work Grand Targhee. “Think green for white mountains”