Ski Sustainably

Telluride, Colorado is known for its pristine snow and expensive mountain getaways and happens to be the focus of this week’s blog. Inspired by a family ski trip I had the privilege of taking this past week, I decided to learn about how the popular Rocky Mountain ski resort handles environmental issues. Well it just so happens that Telluride is leading the pack.

After lugging my bag up three flights of stairs I sat down to catch my breath and snuggled up with a trail map in search of the best runs on the mountain. On the very first page of the trail map in the upper left hand corner, the Telluride Ski & Golf Resort couldn’t wait to tell me about “Sustainability.” Although 'sustainability' is typically a word I loathe, I read on for the sake of education. According to the trail map and the squeaky clean town, the entire community has come together to “meet common conservation goals.” So, at first this seems a little vague with a public relations spin. But, as it turns out, Telluride is actually concerned with maintaining an environmentally friendly ski resort.

The towns of Telluride and Mountain Village are divided by the mountainous terrain that is home to the ski resort, but despite the ‘rocky' inconvenience maintain a fabulous public transportation system. It’s a gondola, also known as a glorified ski lift enclosed by glass. The gondola takes visitors and locals soaring above cabins directly to the grocery store or straight over the mountain to the Town of Telluride.

Lift four, one of Telluride’s most popular lifts, has a sponsor that is helping to alleviate the damage being done to the environment from running the chair lift day after day. Cliff Bar purchased enough renewable energy

offsets equivalent to the annual electricity use for chair lift four. They proudly boast this environmentally friendly deed on every chair on lift four. In addition, on each pole skiers and snowboarders pass on the way up the lift there is more information about the amount of energy that is saved through the Cliff Bar sponsorship. Check it out!

Telluride Ski & Golf has won:
-National Ski Areas Association 2002 Golden Eagle Award for Environmental Excellence
-2006 Silver Eagle Award for Fish and Wildlife Habitat Protection
-2002 Regional Forester’s Honor Award for Land Stewardship

Watcha doin in the desert?

This weekend I went camping with friends in the desert just outside Phoenix, AZ. The trip was inspired by the drunken idea that it would “be cool” to scuba dive for treasure at the bottom of Saguaro Lake. The brown murky lake is home to Phoenicians with boats in tow in pursuit of fun on the water. Needless to say, not a premiere scuba diving location, but we loaded up all of our gear and piled into the car and headed for Mother Nature’s desert oasis in search of some fresh air and treasure. The eight of us filled our tanks at least three times, fired over 150 bullets and managed to produce four large bags of trash over the course of two days. It’s odd that it takes so much stuff to live off the land. I decided to look into this a little more.

The desert attracts tourists paying high prices for a quick hummer tour up steep hill climbs, thrill seeking four-wheelers and avid ATV riders zipping around hair pin turns in desert washes. They all leave something behind because the desert is littered with trash. Whether it be a crevasse with metal bullet casing strewn about or an old campsite with plastic baggies and old beer bottles. Illegal immigrants often times take most of the blame for deserts filled with trash but even in a desert more than 150 miles north of the border, passersby will find a trashy desert. This high traffic desert playground is losing its luster. But, there are some people trying to do something about it, unfortunately it's just not enough.

Arizona Clean and Beautiful is a non-profit, volunteer driven organization that works to clean up Arizona. They do this not only by cleaning the littered deserts, but also through research and education. In the past the group has organized events to pick up trash in Arizona. They cleaned an area close to Saguaro Lake where 436 volunteers showed up to clean littered with diapers, old bath tubs, plastic bags and glass bottles. They collected 21 tons of litter in one day! You can help too…

-volunteer
-report litterbugs: 1-877-3-litter (Greater Arizona) 602-712-4683 (Metro Phoenix Area)
-clean-up after yourself
-leave your campsite cleaner than when you found it



In addition to volunteer groups cleaning the area, the Tonto National Forest also offers volunteer opportunities for anyone interested in helping. Regardless of who is doing the littering, there are people willing to help fix the problem.

Environmental Conference about the consumer

A few weeks ago I attended the EUEC (energy and environment conference) right here in Tucson. As a first time “green” reporter I wanted to learn more about current environmental issues and thought the conference would be just the place to go. In addition to various sessions and speakers, companies are invited by the conference to host booths in a large ballroom. This is where I went. I wandered from booth to booth asking representatives from companies around the world what can be done help reduce carbon emissions.

Here is what leaders in the field said consumers should do:

1) change old light bulbs to new compact fluorescent light bulbs (GAI)
-energy savings of approx $600 million per year (Energy Star)

2) change energy habits (GAI)
-reduce, reuse, recycle

3) hybrid electric vehicles (epri)
-they use less energy than gas powered cars. Learn how it works.

4) turn off appliances (epri)
-even when appliances are turned off are using energy. Learn how.

5) Use more efficient toilets, sinks and low flow shower heads.
-showers, toilets and running sinks use a lot of our water supply. Learn more.

6) Replace your old fridge with a new one
-Fridges are energy drains...especially living in the desert where they have to work a little harder most of the time. Replacing your old fridge with a new more energy efficient one could save you big bucks...learn more.

7) Look into solar energy
-the energy saving potential is huge here in Arizona if we could only harvest the sun that beats down on us more than 300 days per year. learn what is going on in Arizona.

8) Investigate the companies you buy from
-make sure you arn't buying products made by companies that pollute.

Ok, so these recommendations are great and may help reduce a few carbon footprints. But, I couldn’t help but look at the larger picture. So what if I change one light bulb in my house, or shorten my shower by 5 minutes. I am sure there are other companies out there being wasteful and eating up all of my carbon reduction with their over emission. But then I realized this blog is not about what consumers can do…it’s about what government and small business are doing/should be doing to go green.

After perusing the ballroom at the Westin filled with large corporations plugging their green products and saying that the key lies in the hands of the consumer, I was left unconvinced. I have always thought that while; yes “the people” have the biggest say in whatever happens in a democracy…I was not convinced that the key to reducing carbon emissions was really the responsibility of the consumer.

I attended a session where Jacquelyn Jackson, one of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford’s representatives, about a solar power initiative in Arizona. As I sat in on the session I began to feel better about my cynicism. As it turns out Arizona has an enormous amount of sunshine every year, something you will never have to remind an Arizonan of, and the potential to produce OVER 150% of the state’s energy demand with solar energy, according to Jackson. Sadly…less than 1% of our energy today comes from solar power!

Giffords is currently lobbying for a bill that would “safeguard vital individual and commercial tax incentives for installing solar energy systems.” Now doesn’t it make more sense for politicians to rally for new, environmentally friendly ways to reduce carbon emissions rather than have millions of consumers rushing to the market to buy compact fluorescent light bulbs? Well, that would just mean all those old light bulbs are headed straight for the local landfill. It seems entirely counterproductive to have consumers replace all of these old technologies, filling the landfills with old products and eating up energy to create new products.

Big Event: Big Trash

As consumers become increasingly environmentally conscious and make larger efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, businesses are trying to keep up with the demand for green products. Many companies sell products such as low energy appliances and fluorescent light bulbs. But, what are companies doing to go green themselves? According to Solar Energy International, a non-profit organization encouraging renewable resources, “The United States spends about $440 billion annually for energy. Energy costs U.S. consumers $200 billion and U.S. manufacturers $100 billion annually.” So, consumers are a large part of the problem and also a large part of the solution…however, a large portion lies in the hands of manufacturers.

This weekend I was in Phoenix to work the FBR open. The weather was perfect and everyone was having a great time. After my day of work was over and the crowds had cleared, I began my trek back to my car. The entire golf course was a disaster. Beer cans, plastic cups, napkins and bags littered the entire area. I began thinking about all of the items that could be recycled out of this mess. The next day I went on a mission to learn more.

I spoke with Buck Munson, the manager at Greenskeeper, one of the bars located near the 18th hole. The crowd of nearly 8,000 over the course of the five day golf tournament consumed 1,440 bottles of Smirnoff Vodka, 9,600 cans of Red Bull and 27,900 cans of beer, said Munson, standing in the metal storage unit behind the bar stocked with alcohol and various mixers on the last day of the FBR Open. Keep in mind this is just ONE of the many bars that are part of the Open, said Munson.

Michael Pycik, a chef at Michael’s Catering responsible for feeding the crowds said that, on a daily basis, the kitchen at the Greenskeeper uses:
-500 lbs lettuce
-500 lbs eggs
-700 lbs bacon/sausage
-300 lbs potatoes
-1,000 pieces of French toast
-100 cakes and pies
Again, this is just one of many bars and food outlets!

All you have to do is look around at the FBR Open to see that despite having recycling areas, people are not recycling. Why? “It’s too much overhead work period,” said Andy Hall, an investor and part owner of Michael’s Catering. “Sure [the companies] think it’s a good cause but there is no incentive for them to recycle.” Other states like Massachusetts have government sponsored programs that pay people for recycling. “You actually see people picking up plastic bottles and other recyclables in Massachusetts,” said Hall. Programs like the one in Massachusetts will open up a new industry as well as encourage other companies to start recycling, said Hall.

“The bartenders say it’s too much work to separate recyclables,” said Don Brott, a Waste Management employee who worked at the Open this year collecting trash. “It’s like a Chinese puzzle trying to sort this stuff,” said Brott.

This is the first year that the FRB Open has provided recycling cans for the event.