Sustainability Projects & Policies

In 2022, we began a wetland restoration project to restore the area disturbed from the old Norway lift’s bottom terminal. In partnership with Peak Ecological Services, we reworked 4,300 square-feet of wetlands and improve 8,000 square-feet of associated upland habitats.

Each year, we maintain these habitats through comprehensive willow sprigging, weeding, irrigating, mulching, and re-seeding with a US Forest Service-approved native seed mix. As of the summer of 2025, we have planted over 1,500 willow sprigs, which have held at around a 70% success rate. This project also included restoring the nearby stream and streambed.

In 2024, we restored the portion of the North Fork Snake River that crosses the Wrangler ski trail on our lower mountain. Once confined to a buried culvert, we set out to create a more functional and natural streambed for this portion of the river.

We worked with a local excavator to dewater the stream, temporarily diverting water around the worksite, to remove the old culvert and regrade the area to promote natural streamflow. Then we placed boulders and rocks, as well as clumps of living willows taken from the initial site, to create a rocky streambed and floodplain.

The streambed is now complete with subtle twists and turns, and deeper pools and waterfalls. To top it off, with help from Peak Ecological Services, we created a native seed mix and revegetation plan to bring back the thriving grasses, wildflowers, and willows found around the stream.

Every A-basin department creates a specific sustainability plan for its operation. These plans outline ways for their employees to uphold and contribute to A-Basin’s sustainability goals while creating employee buy-in and ownership for sustainability initiatives within their department.

Our employee Green Team includes and engages folks from various departments across the ski area in our Sustainability Initiatives. We engage with our liaisons from each department to learn about what’s needed in different areas of the operation. From what we’ve learned from folks in various departments, we have expanded Ski Patrol, Lift Maintenance, and Guest Services waste diversion initiatives; initiated new events, such as the Employee Clothing Swap; and improved our resort-wide communication efforts.

Additionally, the Green Team participates in activities like environmental movie nights, trash pickups, restoration days, volunteer opportunities, and more.

Each month, we publish an Employee Sustainability Newsletter, which covers on-site sustainability initiatives, world-wide climate news, community engagement opportunities, and more. This newsletter is posted in various locker rooms and is sent out online. We aim to keep our employees engaged with our initiatives to maintain authenticity and transparency.

Our staff uses Terracycle for hard-to-recycle plastics, such as snack wraps and flexible plastics, shipping materials, latex gloves, and hard cards. Guests are also encouraged to engage in our resort-wide flexible plastic and hard-card programs by disposing their materials in the proper bins in the Base Area and in the A-Frame. Terracycle supports circularity and minimizes the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill.

We collect electronics, batteries, lightbulbs, scrap metal, and cartons from employees and community members through our Hard-to-Recycle program and then haul them to Summit County Resource Allocation Park, who sorts and transports them to domestic producers that use these recycled materials.

Since 2023, we have provided free compost bins to employees, encouraging them to dispose of their compost at A-Basin to minimize the amount of organic material that ends up the landfill. 

Stone Paper utilizes naturally occurring minerals to create durable, tear-proof paper that saves trees, water, and reduces harmful chemical use. Our trail maps are reusable thanks to their durability, so be sure to drop your map in one of our base area collection bins for someone else’s use.

In 2012, we replaced all our lights with newer, efficient fixtures saving more than 50,000 kWh and significant emissions annually. We’ve since revisited many of these areas, continuing our upgrades and furthering our emissions reductions. In 2019 we remodeled our aging, A-Frame bathrooms with waterless, hybrid, and low-flow fixtures that saved more than 500,000 gallons of water in their first year.

Since the 2015 construction of the Kids Center, sustainable design and construction practices have been featured in all our new buildings and major renovations. Roof-mounted solar, water-saving or waterless fixtures and efficient HVAC systems are a part of Steilhang and Il Rifugio in addition to the Kids Center.

The FreeAire system installed in the A-Frame’s walk-in coolers monitors indoor and outdoor temperatures, cycling clean mountain air into the cooler whenever the outside air is cool enough. By utilizing existing cold air, these walk-ins use roughly 90% less energy than traditional coolers.

Installed in 2003, our snowmaking system features airless fan guns that use only a portion of the energy of a conventional system with compressed air. Our snowmaking team also follows strict water-use commitments that help protect the habitat of the Snake River.

The CleanBurn Technologies furnace in our maintenance shop can burn used motor oil, hydraulic fluid, and other engine waste to heat the building. Vehicle, snowcat, and equipment oil changes mean we need fewer propane deliveries and waste-oil disposal pick-ups. 

Fluorinated Wax contains per- and polyflouroalkyl substances (PFAS) known as "forever chemicals". These chemicals have 0% biodegradability; once they are in the environment, they will stay there forever. PFAS are toxic to the environment and are proven to be carcinogenic to animals and people. Most of this fluorinated wax applied to skis or snowboards ends up directly in the environment or local watersheds. So, we've partnered with Mountain Flow Wax, a sustainable plant-based wax company, to collect and send petroleum-based waxes back to Mountain Flow for safe storage and disposal. If anyone brings in an old unused wax, the tune shop will provide them with a free belt wax!

A-Basin employees support the work of two great open-space organizations: the Eagle-Summit Wilderness Alliance and Colorado Open Lands. Thanks to our employees’ generosity, more than $60,000 has been raised to support land conservation and stewardship in our community.

A-Basin donates $10 of every uphill pass sold and asks guests to contribute $2 when they complete a purchase online. The money raised has funded multiple projects in the White River National Forest, our home, including trail-building, invasive weed removal, educational campaigns, and much more.

Educational areas around the mountain teach about local plants, animals, and mountain ecosystems in kid-friendly terms. These areas are popular among our snowsports classes and correspond to collector cards that challenge kids to cultivate an environmental ethic with fun and easy sustainability activities.

On top of the Green Team, we provide a multitude of opportunities for our employees to engage in on-hill stewardship work. Not only is stewardship an ethos of our trail building and saw crew teams throughout the summer, but it’s an engaging way to bring employees together for the greater good.

We host employee trash and highway cleanups each summer. We also invite employees from all departments to join in on restoration days to both get their hands dirty and learn about our environmental initiatives. Lastly, we host educational tours of our waste processing facility each fall to encourage employees to learn about Summit County’s waste diversion initiatives.

The Environmental Protection Agency has recognized A-Basin as one of the nation's leading green power users. The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that helps increase green power use among U.S. organizations, advancing the American market for green power and the development of those sources to reduce air pollution and other environmental impacts associated with electricity use.

In 2000, A-Basin co-founded the National Ski Area Association’s Sustainable Slopes Environmental Charter, pledging ski area action and leadership in the environmental space. In 2008, A-Basin helped found the NSAA’s Climate Challenge, committing members to track and publicly report their emissions and implementing at least one direct emissions reduction project each year. Collectively, Climate Challengers have saved more than 300,000 metric tons of carbon since 2008.

As of February 2025, Arapahoe Basin is STOKE Certifed at the Sustainable Level, the first ski area ever to achieve the second-highest level of STOKE certification. STOKE is the Sustainable Tourism and Outdoors Kit for Evaluation. The sustainability certification body provides standards built specifically for surf and ski tourism operators, destinations, and affiliated events. The average ski area scores around 9%, while Arapahoe Basin came in at 63%. 

The Colorado Green Business Network recognizes organizations who excel at sustainable operations in their sector. They have implemented large scale changes to their organization to reduce resource use and emphasize sustainability throughout the organization.