Aspen Skiing Company & Kleercut Campaign

Aspen Skiing Company (ASC) is serious about reducing its environmental impacts, from a business perspective. Sustainability comprises an important aspect of their corporate values and mission. They have also made it integral to their brand. This provides significant motive, as the company is beholden to stakeholders and customers to live up to their sustainability goals and maintain their corporate image.

The ASC has also shown themselves to be interested in being leaders in sustainability for their industry. By voluntarily adopting sustainable practices and by publishing their environmental impacts, they set an example for other companies to make sustainable changes to their business practices. They also act as an example of success or, if necessary, failure, so that other companies can model their policies and processes accordingly.

Finally, the ASC has begun to influence other businesses directly, by incorporating sustainability criteria into their procurement process. This allows them to build partnerships with suppliers who share their values, and with whom they can plan sustainable growth. By requiring that their suppliers disclose information on their environmental impacts, they bring transparency to other industries and protect themselves from the risk of being associated with an organization or supplier who does not meet the standards they are setting for themselves.

The ASC is driven to these sustainable goals in part by a desire to maintain the viability of ski hills. While there are often financial drivers to sustainable business practices, for the ASC the ROI is much longer term, as the impacts of climate change are only just beginning to assert themselves. This is a reason that the ASC might be interested in expanding their efforts beyond their own internal operations – without a wider approach to sustainability, the impacts of climate change cannot be adequately addressed. This means that every environmentally sustainable action that the ASC takes is meant not only as an internal measure but also as a new standard of sustainability for business.

As Director of Sustainability, I would implement a three part strategy that focuses on internal operations, suppliers and supply chain, and finally on customers.

The first priority for internal operations would be to reduce the ASC’s environmental impacts. I would do this through similar methods to Auden Schendler, including reducing reliance on non-renewable energy, reusing resources (especially water) wherever possible, and creating an ultimate goal to have a zero-sum impact locally. I would minimize expansion and focus instead on updating and changing existing runs, or creating options for skiers, to allow more variety (for example, runs that branch off and cross paths, allowing skiers to start on a certain run but switch runs partway at a crossroad).

Once I had developed a long-term plan for sustainability internally, I would focus on greening my supply chain. This would include requirements for companies to disclose their environmental impacts, sustainable procurement criteria, and supplier collaboration for sustainable innovation.

Finally, I would focus on the customers themselves. I would work to offset the impacts of travel to the resort by offering discounts and rewards for customers who used more sustainable methods of travel. I would also develop educational offerings and programs for customers, so that their visits could include family friendly hikes, tours and lectures about the local environment. I would implement sustainable hotel practices, such as requests for guests to reuse towels, reducing food and beverage waste, and implementing a recycling and composting program.

Ideally, the goal would be to make the ASC as self-sustaining as possible, and reduce the environmental footprint to zero. However, suppliers