White fluff is falling, blowing and swirling past my window. We are covered in snowy white from head to toe putting that Disney girl and her little friends to shame. Being blanketed in all this white, you may not know that Sierra is really GREEN.
The saying, that what goes around comes around may be true in social dealings but, it absolutely true when it comes to precipitation. I am talking about a hydrological cycle. That is the process by which precipitation falls, melts, runs into rivers, lakes and streams, and flows back into oceans where the process begins all over again. Pretty neat, huh?
Well, Sierra has acknowledged their role in keeping our water clean for all snow peeps and those of us who moonlight as surfers in the nether seasons. We’ve also taken an active role in enacting eco-friendly business and operation practices to protect our environment. I don’t know about you but I was getting a little nervous a few years back when it seemed global warming was turning our powder days into rainy day- no bueno! If we wanted rain we’d move to Seattle, right?
Sierra's mission is to ".. involve all resort stakeholders ( guests, management, employees, anyone who is affected or involved with the mountain) in initiatives that will increase appreciation of, awareness of and, most importantly, action toward conservation of our environment so that we may all see tangible results from our behaviors.”
In a nutshell, we love skiing/living/visiting this beautiful area and we want to keep it that way for us, our kids, and our kids' kids. To do our part in ensuring this happens, Sierra's team has created the Project: Green Sierra. This project is dedicated to finding and employing environmentally friendly and sustainable practices in our daily operations as well as our long term planning.
Efforts range from switching to using recycled paper to offering free shuttles to guests lowering emissions, to switching to bio-diesel fuel for our machinery. There is always more we can do but Sierra has been recognized our efforts. Just last year we were recognized with a Silver Eagle Award for environmental education.
You can do your part too. You can do simple things like turn the water off when brushing your teeth, recycle, support sustainable products, use reusable bags at the grocery store.... there are so many easy ways to help. Please, please, please, be sure to always pick up your trash wherever you go. I found a cigarette butt in the snow the other day and I'm sure you can imagine how frustrating it was to see. I'd like to really hit that person in the head….. with some education.
Ok I'm getting off my soap box to go ride our newest natural resurfacing- it's still snowing.
Ride white and think Green.
