It's a wonderful thing when a beautiful place is entrusted to those that care. Sugar Bowl Ski Resort is owned and managed by a passionate group of people that love the mountains and are committed to maintaining the natural beauty for generations to come. Read on about our progressive use of 100% green energy to power the resort, our participation in the "sharing warmth around the globe" program, the special care we take with our forest, water supply and our planet.

Sugar Bowl places a high value on our natural surroundings, and we realize they are our greatest current and future asset. We will help set a superior standard for the industry and our community by consistently implementing environmentally sound policies and practices to improve and maintain the quality of our environs.
Sugar Bowl's commitment to environmental responsibility goes hand in hand with our obligation to provide a safe and quality experience for our guests as well as maintaining an economically viable business.

• Conserve natural resources and when feasible implement alternative, environmentally friendly sources of energy.
• Employ policies that reduce waste of all materials.
• Plan, design, and complete projects using practices that have the least impact on natural surroundings and habitats.
• Engage in short and long-term restoration and mitigation of surrounding landscapes.
• Reduce, and whenever possible, eliminate water and air contaminates.
• Encourage guest and employee participation in our environmental mission by making available the appropriate tools, training, and educational opportunities.

Sugar Bowl is proud to be a founding member of the Sierra Green Building Association (SiGBA). SiGBA’s mission is to promote effective environmental design in our communities by:

• Advocating resource efficiency in all phases of the design, construction and operation of homes and businesses.
• Providing educational resources and support in the areas of site development, energy, building materials, air, water and waste.
• Coordinating networking opportunities and community events.

SiGBA’s vision is to lead the Tahoe, Truckee, and surrounding Sierra communities into a new sustainable era. Through Green Building, we can design and construct our built environment to function symbiotically with nature. More Information

Environmental Contact: Rebecca Meyerholz

What is Sugar Bowl doing to protect the environment we depend on?

• We are working with all departments to minimize our contribution to global climate change by reducing our consumption of electricity, propane, gas and diesel. Our goal is a 10% reduction over two years.
• We recycle! Please use blue bags for paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic. Corrugated cardboard only (no wax covering) should be placed in cardboard recycling bins. Batteries, printer cartridges, and cell phones should be recycled in the bins in HR. All vehicle oil is picked up by Safety Clean and recycled. All of our fryer oil is picked up by the El Dorado and recycled for bio-fuel used to power the casino.
• We subsidize a free shuttle from Truckee to Sugar Bowl/Donner Summit. We also have a Ride Share board on our website for our guests to organize carpools to get to Sugar Bowl.
• We offer our guests the opportunity to offset the carbon emitted in traveling to Sugar Bowl. A purchase of a $2 “Keep Winter Cool Ski Green Tags” carbon offset supports wind facilities in Pecos County, TX, Roosevelt, WA, and Burleigh County, ND. With the offset guests receive a sticker and a Clif Bar. We also offer a “Season Pass Ski Green Tag” for $20.
• Our new Summit Chair was constructed with minimal impacts. No merchantable trees were removed, no roads constructed, no tractor grading was required, and the towers and top terminal were helicopter lifted in to hand-dug footings, minimizing overall impact. The chairlift is an almost 100% Recycled/ Reused 1998 CTEC fixed grip chairlift that was removed from Christmas Tree in 2005, when it was replaced with a high-speed detachable.
• Water quality and erosion control are important areas in our environmental policy. Water on the mountain is protected employing best management practices such as straw bales, waddles, silt fencing and re-vegetation. Annually we budget over $125,000. for trail & road maintenance and re-vegetation.
• Snowmaking is conducted in a manner that protects minimum stream flows and is sensitive to fish and wildlife resources. Snowmaking is performed with the utmost care and conservation using water from our own Lake Mary. This lake is maintained and stocked to ensure marine health.
• Sugar Bowl has installed oil separators and sediment ponds for parking lot storm water runoff collection; wells were also installed as part of a surface & ground water quality monitoring program.
• Since 2004, we have been taking water quality samples from various locations representing different areas of spring run-off from around the resort (generally May through July). A log is kept of the water sample results, where trends and anomalies can be identified.

Sustainability is not new to Sugar Bowl:

• We use 100% green cleaning products.
• We use 100% recycled content or compostable food service products & 30% recycled content office paper.
• We run 100% B10 biofuel in all of our licensed highway vehicles.
• We use solar panels to trickle charge batteries on our chair lifts.
• 50% of our snowmobile fleet has been converted to 4-stroke, and we continue to replace a couple old snowmobiles with new 4-stroke ones each year.
• We are in the process of retrofitting our old facilities with energy efficient lighting and water saving fixtures.
• We host our annual Environmental Awareness Day, to promote sustainable skiing and environmental education and celebrate the ongoing environmental efforts of Sugar Bowl, our guests and local environmental groups.

Questions? More information? Please contact Rebecca Meyerholz or 530-426-6709

Sugar Bowl Ski Resort is committed to environmental sustainability and minimizing our impact on global climate change. In partnership with 3 Degrees, since 2005, we support California wind farms by purchasing renewable wind energy to offset 100% of our electricity use. This purchase reduces Sugar Bowl's consumption of fossil fuels, cleans the air, and keeps greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.

As of January 1, 2009 our purchase of wind energy has accumulated to 4,072 MWH. In turn, this reduces our consumption of fossil fuels, cleans the air, and keeps 4,588,000 pounds of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere each year. This is equivalent taking 579 cars off of the roads for one year or converting 419 average U.S. households to renewable energy for one year.

Sugar Bowl has joined forces with Clif Bar to take a stand on Global Cooling. Every time we use fossil fuels to drive our cars, heat or cool our homes, even grow and cook food, we create greenhouse gases. Excess greenhouse gases accumulate in the Earth’s atmosphere and cause an unnatural build-up of heat. Purchase a Green Tag when you buy your lift ticket for an additional $2 or purchase a Ski Green Season Pass for $20. This will offset your carbon usage that it took to get to the resort.

But there’s hope — with your help we can make the world a cooler place. By using energy more efficiently and by helping to build new sources of clean energy — we can slow global warming. And it’s easier than you might think. To find out more about Clif Bar's efforts towards global cooling, check out clifbar.com

Global Cooling is at the top of the list of environmental concerns for Sugar Bowl and reducing carbon dioxide omissions is our focus. Great effort is made to help reduce traffic flow to the resort and promote high occupancy vehicle travel. Following is a summary of the costs of these efforts.

• Sugar Bowl Shuttle Carpooling - Partners with Snowbomb.com to provide a convenient way to find others heading to Sugar Bowl. Check out the Sugar Bowl Shuttle
• Employee and public shuttle service is provided from Truckee and Donner Summit. Approximately $69,600 in direct costs to promote and operate the Truckee and Summit Shuttle. Approximately 326,000 Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) were avoided this season through the Truckee Shuttle Service. This service is free to the public. We've partnered with the Town of Truckee, Royal Gorge, Soda Springs, Borea and Donner Ski Ranch to provide this service.
• Approximately $76,000 to maintain and keep open old Highway 40, significantly reducing the number of miles traveled to reach us from Truckee and eastern locations.
• Carpool parking incentives offered to day visitors.

Environmental Contact: Rebecca Meyerholz

The SaveOurSnow.com website which launched in Summer 2006 on the single issue of climate change in ski resorts has seen its first major content update since its launch.

The independent site compiles the conclusions of scientific reports from around the world on how climate change is likely to reduce snow cover in mountain areas around the planet as well as polar regions.  It also records the efforts ski resorts are making to minimise their impact on the environment.

The site update includes:

• News archive featuring more than 100 news stories on climate change issues.
• More ski areas awarded the maximum five stars for offering the most carbon neutral ski holidays, including the first Southern Hemisphere and North American resorts.
• More holiday companies offering greener ski holidays.
• Site feedback from our first six months.

"Winter 2006-7 has seen an explosion of effort by ski resorts worldwide to minimise their environmental impact and tour operators are also trying to do more", said site compiler, ski writer Patrick Thorne. The most visible improvements have been in the US where ski resorts were already leading the country in their environmental efforts. "Now many of the leading resorts have switched to renewable energy sources and there are many other imaginative initiatives." Sugar Bowl Resort in the Lake Tahoe Region was the second resort in the US to go with 100% Green Energy consuption. Those efforts combined with their extensive recycling, transportation initiatives, errorsion control programs and employee efforts has earned Sugar Bowl SaveOurSnows coveted 5 Star environmental rating!

With the limited snow cover and record warm temperatures in Europe and until recently Eastern North America, SaveOurSnow has been receiving a lot of high profile media attention in Europe and North America.

"There is a lot of onus in mainstream media on ski resorts to do more, but having looked at the overall issues in detail for some years now I believe that many ski resorts are operating to the highest green standards. I believe a greater share of the joint responsibility lies with individuals to do more in their day to day lives to minimise their contribution to climate change and for governments to do much more to help us all in that goal. Ski resorts are more victims than cause of climate change in the mountains", said Thorne.

Contact:
Patrick Thorne
Email Questions
Save Our Snow Web Site

Sugar Bowl proudly endorses the National Ski Area Association's Environmental Charter known as Sustainable Slopes. Essentially, this means that Sugar Bowl commits to practicing and demonstrating environmental protection and stewardship. The Environmental Charter provides a framework to implement best practices, assess environmental performance, and set goals for improvement in the future.

Sugar Bowl 2011 Sustainable Slopes Annual Report

Sugar Bowl places a high value on their natural surrounds and realizes that they are one of our greatest assets. The resort is consistently implementing environmentally sound policies and practices to improve and maintain the quality of the environment.

In 2011, Sugar Bowl Resort was recognized as a business leader by Keep the Sierra Green by demonstrating their efforts to minimize waste, conserve energy and water, and implement pollution prevention measures.

Sugar Bowl has an aggressive conservation program. The resort continues to work with all departments to minimize their contribution to global climate change. They committed to cutting energy consumption by 10% from their 2007/08 baseline to the end of the 2009/10 season. In the first year, the resort reduced electrical consumption by 31% and in the second year, reduced electrical consumption by 18%. This reduction of 1,772,863 kWh over the past two years equates to a reduction in emissions of 1,273 metric tons of CO2, equal to removing 243 cars from the road for one year. To achieve this goal, Sugar Bowl, has an Environmental and Conservation committee that meets monthly to review consumption and discuss programs. Sugar Bowl is identifying and funding on an annual basis projects and purchases which significantly reduce consumption and waste.

Continued & Recently Completed Initiatives:

• Purchase 100% renewable energy in Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from 3Degrees.
• Diverted over 21% of waste last year by recycling.
• Subsidize a free shuttle from Truckee to Sugar Bowl/Donner Summit
• Provide a free Ride Share board on their web site to support carpooling to the resort.
• Sustainable Slopes and Keep Winter Cool Programs
• Preserve wetlands and protect water quality
• Forest Stewardship
• Adopt-a-Highway program
• Habitat protection during development
• Annual Environmental Awareness Day
• Replaced all electronic water coolers with water purifiers in office sinks
• Installed occupancy sensors for lighting in many offices and public areas
• Installed strip curtains in all refrigeration and shipping and receiving dock to reduce energy consumption
• Recommissioned the HVAC system in the Judah Day Lodge to improve efficiency and reduce propane consumption.
• Include environmental considerations in purchasing decisions:
• Purchase 100% green cleaning products.
• Purchase non-disposable and 100% recycled content or compostable food service products
• Purchase 30% recycled content office paper.
• Purchase biodiesel for use in all licensed highway vehicles.
• To date, have replaced 50% of snowmobile fleet by purchasing 4-stroke snowmobiles to replace 2 stroke snowmobiles on an ongoing basis
• Have eliminated all tier 0 snow cats by replacing with tier 3.
• Purchase more efficient fan guns for snowmaking

How you can help:

• Carpool or take advantage of Sugar Bowl's free shuttle from Truckee.
• Turn off lights when leaving a room.
• Reuse bath towels and linens to conserve energy and water.
• Reduce cafeteria waste - use washable silverware and use dispensers rather than individual packets.
• Use a reusable mug or cup whenever possible.
• Dispose of waste properly - recycle!
• Reuse or recycle used trail maps (We have provided more mountain maps on the ski hill!)

To view the 24 page Environmental Charter document or for more information on this program, please visit www.nsaa.org

Environmental Contact: Rebecca Meyerholz

Water quality and erosion control are important areas in our environmental policy. We have seeded the run-off prone areas of the ski hill and re-vegetated the base area with native wild flowers. Preserving water quality at the resort is a priority; water on the mountain is protected using straw bales, waddles, re-vegetation & silt fencing.

Snowmaking activity is conducted in a manner that protects minimum stream flows and is sensitive to fish and wildlife resources. Snowmaking is performed with the utmost care and conservation using water from our own Lake Mary. This lake is maintained and stocked to ensure marine health.

Sugar Bowl has installed oil separators and sediment ponds for parking lot storm water runoff collection; wells were also installed as part of a surface & ground water quality monitoring program.

Erosion Control
Sugar Bowl has a full time summer staff dedicated to erosion control and re-vegetation projects. This past summer’s projects have included water bar repair and construction, slope reseeding, tree planting, and extensive irrigation. Additional efforts include limiting or prohibiting motorized vehicle traffic in sensitive areas and ongoing education of our staff and customers regarding our “treading lightly” philosophy.

In 2006, Sugar Bowl reached a milestone of 300% improvement in recycled materials since we began aggressively pursuing our waste reduction efforts 6 years ago.

In 2002 Sugar Bowl was awarded the largest grant ever in California to promote beverage container recycling and overall recycling awareness in the recreation industry. Each year, our recycling efforts increase with measurable results.

In 2006 Sugar Bowl began working with Sierra Cost Management to further our efforts in conservation including:

• Installing additional beverage container collection bins in all public areas and at major events.
• Divert all batteries, fluorescent bulbs, cell phones, printer cartridges and other universal waste to centrally located collection buckets.
• Restrict purchase of disposable food service items to compostable or #1 or #2 plastic
• Initiate training for all employees and homeowners regarding new recycling and conservation programs.

Sugar Bowl is excited about this partnership with Sierra Cost Management. It is estimated that during the first year, we witnessed an increase in recycling poundage of 5.7% resulting in waste reduction and cost savings!!

Sugar Bowl and the California Department of Conservation

The Sierra Nevada Conservancy Board of Directors voted to accept the design for a new Sierra Nevada License Plate at its Regional Meeting on March 13 in Mariposa, California. The final plate design was based on the artwork of Sierra Nevada Conservancy logo design competition participant, Orion Day of Sonora. Velocity7 adapted Mr. Day’s artwork to the license plate, which includes a brown bear, blue creek, green pines, and mountain peaks— important symbols of the Sierra Nevada range.

The Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) 2007 Logo Concept Design was open to students grades 9 through 12 in the Sierra Nevada Region. Sugar Bowl sponsored this event with free one-day tickets the first 100 qualified entrants. Over 200 students entered. Orion Day’s artwork placed and also received honorable mention.

A new requirement for specialty plates requires 7,500 license plate registrations prior to issuing this specialty license. The Sierra Fund is managing the marketing of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy License Plate. Velocity7 worked under contract for The Sierra Fund to establish a marketing campaign. Once this program is in progress, proceeds from the sales and renewal of Sierra Nevada Conservancy License Plates fund the Sierra Nevada Conservancy’s efforts to protect and restore the 25 million acres of majestic landscapes in the Sierra Nevada.

For more information on the Sierra Nevada Conservancy License Plate visit: www.sierrafund.org



About Velocity7 Velocity7 provides integrated design and marketing communications with a green twist. Services include marketing communications, web, branding, print, public relations, advertising and media planning. 530.470.9292 www.velocity7.com

Skiing Green

Help us keep winter cool by purchasing a SkiGreen offset for just $2. SkiGreen is a partnership between the non-profit Bonneville Environmental Foundation and leaders in the sports industry to build support for non-polluting renewable sources of energy.

Since 2005, Sugar Bowl has been powered by 100% green electricity. In partnership with 3Degrees, Inc., we became the first ski resort to commit to wind energy at this level. Quickly, the winter sports industry followed our lead. According to the National Ski Areas Association, there are now there are now over 68 resorts purchasing renewable electricity.

Of course, we understand that buying carbon offsets is not a complete solution. Skiing and snowboarding still require tremendous amounts of energy. And, the greenhouse gases we release into the atmosphere are already affecting our favorite sports.

Clearly, the ski industry’s impact on climate change is less than 1% of a massive global problem. However, at Sugar Bowl, we believe that it is our responsibility to do our part to protect the environment we depend on.

As our guests, we ask you to do the same.

For only $2 per person, per day, you can offset the carbon emitted through your travel to Sugar Bowl. Your donation goes directly to the Bonneville Environmental Foundation’s SkiGreen program. Each SkiGreen tag supports 100 kWh of wind power, and prevents 150 pounds of greenhouse gases from being released into the Earth’s atmosphere. This is enough to balance 150 miles worth of air pollution caused from driving an average sized U.S. automobile.

To calculate the actual impact of your personal trip to Sugar Bowl, please visit our partners at www.skigreen.org

To find blog entries about Sugar Bowl's green activities please visit the Ski-Green Blog

Check out where we stand - In the Top 10! Click Here >>

In celebration of our 10 year Anniversary, the Scorecard got a long-overdue makeover! Instead of focusing on one general score, the new Report Card has been broken down into four individual categories and an overall score. The four new categories are:

• Habitat Protection
• Protecting Watersheds
• Addressing Global Climate Change
• Environmental Practices and Policies.

The new categories will help skiers and snowboarders get a more accurate and easy to understand picture of the environmental impacts of their favorite ski area's operations.

The Ski Area Environmental Report Card is a non-industry, independent mechanism that gives all outdoor and mountain recreational users, a way to assess the environmental performance and policies of their favorite ski areas and resorts. By making eco-friendly business choices, you can encourage the improvement of environmental business policies and practices.

Other Resources

• Historical Scores are now available for comparison purposes
• New this year is the "Little Ski Areas that Rock" list. Although too small to be graded on the Report Card, these small businesses are an important part of the industry and are frequently outstanding environmental stewards.
• In 2008 we added our own Demographics and Trends Report, looking at the details of growth and future prospects for growth in the ski industry.
• Last year we added the “Compare Ski Areas by Ownership” feature, allowing skiers to research the overall environmental performance of the industry’s biggest players.

About the Ski Area Citizens' Coalition
The Ski Area Citizens' Coalition works to promote environmental stewardship. By evaluating ski area responsiveness to the needs of environmental stewardship, local communities, and the recreational public in a manner that is consistent to changing economic and environmental policies, we can potentially influence current business practices and trends to be increasingly more eco-friendly.

Staff and Volunteers and of SACC are skiers themselves, and recognize skiing and mountain recreations as a valid and great use of public lands. The experiences, enjoyment, and memories that are created through the use of public lands cannot be monetarily measured; they are invaluable. As Theodore Roosevelt noted, “To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we thought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.”

This year the Ski Area Citizens Coalition enlisted the help of an intern from Fort Lewis College, Megan Marshall. Megan a Colorado native, avid skier and environmental studies student assisted in the development, implementation and design for the 2009/2010 scorecard. Her general knowledge of the ski industry and the environment has been a great addition to the team and to the scorecard.

Ski Area Scorecard Highlighted in Academic Studies
George Washington University Professor Jorge Rivera and University of Denver Professor Peter de Leon published a study of ski industry environmental impacts and the National Ski Area Association’s Sustainable Slopes program in the Policy Studies Journal (Vol. 32, No. 3, 2004).

Entitled “Is Greener Whiter? Voluntary Environmental Performance of Western Ski Areas”, the study validated many issues that the conservation community has had of the ski industry’s voluntary environmental program, and confirmed that the Ski Area Environmental Scorecard is an accurate and useful third-party tool to gauge ski resorts’ environmental policies and management. A follow up study published in 2006 titled "Is Greener Whiter Yet? The Sustainable Slopes Program after Five Years" found similar results.