NORTH AMERICA: Vail Resorts has released its 2022/23 Environmental & Social Responsibility Report revealing it is on track to achieve its energy efficiency goal early.
It also achieved 100 per cent renewable electricity for the second consecutive year at 37 of its north American resorts.
The company owns and/or manages a collection of hotels under the RockResorts brand, as well as a portfolio of holiday rentals and branded hotels located close to its mountain destinations.
The network Vail Resorts works with includes ski resorts across the world with a focus on North America’s Vail Mountain, Breckenridge, Park City Mountain, Whistler Blackcomb, Stowe, as well as 32 additional resorts across the continent. Other resorts include Andermatt-Sedrun in Switzerland; and Perisher, Hotham, and Falls Creek in Australia.
Vail Resorts committed to its sustainability pathway in 2017 with a goal to achieve a zero net operating footprint by 2030, including zero net emissions, zero waste to landfill, and zero net operating impact to forests and habitat.
Kirsten Lynch, chief executive officer of Vail Resorts said: “Our responsibility work is rooted in our commitment to the future. This comes to life through our bold sustainability goals and using our voice to drive action on climate change; programmes to expand access to our sport; and support for our employees and mountain resort communities.
The company has just shared that it is ahead of schedule to reach its emissions goals, and on track for the broader goal of reaching a zero net operating footprint by 2030.
Key highlights of the report include:
- Achieved 100 per cent renewable electricity for the second consecutive year across the company’s 37 North American resorts;
- Achieved energy efficiency goal ahead of the company’s 2030 target, driven by $10 million in on-mountain energy-saving investments since 2018;
- Reduced landfill waste by 6.1 million pounds (36 per cent) from the company’s baseline;
- Hosted nearly 11,300 underrepresented youth last year, many from major metropolitan areas such as New York City, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit, surpassing the company’s 2022/23 youth access goal by 25 per cent;
- Partnered with 53 nonprofits that provide equitable access by offering adaptive programming across 30 resorts in the Vail Resorts network;
- Donated more than $29 million in community and employee grants to support affordable childcare, housing, mental health care and disaster relief;
- Doubled the investment in mental health care for employees since 2022.
Last year Vail Resorts also launched its Supply Chain Sustainability programme, which is a formal partnership between its internal sustainability and procurement teams in an effort too reduce waste to landfill and implement innovative sustainability projects in the following categories: food and beverage, packaging, goods, energy, and equipment.
You can read the full impact report here.
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