Leading the Way: Park City Mountain’s Steps Toward a Zero Waste Future

Park City Mountain, through the support of Vail Resorts EpicPromise, has sponsored the incentive program for the Community Foundation’s Zero Food Waste program. The first 1,000 households to sign up in the 84060 and 84098 zip codes receive a starter kit and your first month free. We talked to Park City Mountain to learn more about what they have been doing to divert food waste at the resort.

While Zero Food Waste is a new initiative for Park City Community Foundation, the goal to divert all food waste from landfills has been part of Park City Mountain’s and Vail Resorts’ operations since 2017. That’s when the company set their Commitment to Zero, which includes three pillars to achieve a Zero Net Operating Footprint by 2030: Zero Net Emissions, Zero Waste to Landfills, and Zero Net Operating Impact on Forests and Habitat.

“We obviously had many things we need to tackle,” said Vail Resorts’ Senior Manager for Sustainability of the Rocky Mountain Region JohnRyan Lockman. “But food waste by volume and weight was the number one thing to address in the beginning of our Zero Waste journey.”

Erin Fulmore, Sustainability Coordinator of Park City Mountain, said they launched large-scale composting in 2017, but they were donating to places like farms and foodbanks even before then.

Pulling off composting on such a large scale can be a challenge when 8 of the resort’s restaurants are on top of mountains and inaccessible by roads. To address the logistical hurdles, snowcats retrieve food waste bins from the mountaintop locations and deliver them to the loading dock every night during the ski season.

JohnRyan said there are similar systems across all Vail Resorts properties, though each one is slightly different to fit the particular needs of that community. Adapting the system at each resort based on the resources and partners that already exist within each community is vital to success.

The other key to success, both JohnRyan and Erin agreed, is in the hands of employees.  JohnRyan iterated that it’s important for waste to be properly sorted for recycling and composting to decrease contamination, which comes down to employees and good signage across all resorts.

“It hasn’t been as challenging as we thought to get our employees engaged in [zero waste] because it is one of our core values that our employees are engaged with,” JohnRyan said. “So, they see it is as their ability to live out those values day to day.”

Of Vail Resorts’ core values — Serve Others, Do Good, Have Fun, Be Safe, Do Right, Be Inclusive, and Drive Value — Do Good is the one most connected to the issue of zero waste. Vail Resorts’ definition of Do Good is to “preserve our natural environments and contribute to the success of our local communities.”

This still isn’t an easy feat. Vail Resorts employs about 57,000 people, many of whom are seasonal employees. During the winter, Park City Mountain has thousands of employees. Everyone must be updated on seasonal changes as they come, and training and signage must be adjusted for each resort’s system. Once effectively implemented though, JohnRyan said there are significant operational savings as the amount of trash to haul is reduced.

Erin and JohnRyan both shared some of their key tips for starting to divert food waste, whether you’re a small household or an international business:

1. Start Small

JohnRyan’s first piece of advice was to start small. One example of this was that Vail Resorts started by donating food scraps to pig farmers before they began composting operations. “An easy thing you can do at home is divert that food waste, work with a program like the one Park City Community Foundation has implemented, especially with incentives to make it easy to get started. Just start small.”

2. Change Habits

Erin echoed JohnRyan’s advice about the Community Foundation’s Zero Food Waste Curbside Collection Program. “You don’t have to deal with any of the dirty work. Just put it in a bin and it gets picked up, which is lovely,” Erin said. “But I think my biggest advice is just changing your habits.” Erin said these habits are small steps like remembering to sort your waste and not scraping your plate into the trash.

JohnRyan said it took a bit of getting used to using a separate bin for food scraps. “My wife and I actually love it because when you’re prepping food you can take the container and scrape all of the food directly in,” JohnRyan said. He fills up the bucket every two or three days and then stores it in a sealed pickle bucket in the garage to contain the smell. “The key thing is that by getting organics out of your trash all of a sudden you realize you don’t take the trash out as much and your trash doesn’t smell,” JohnRyan said, adding that this helps keep wildlife away from their trash bins too.

3. Business Best Practices

“For a business, the key thing first and foremost is to look at what’s coming into the business,” JohnRyan said. For example, Vail Resorts uses disposable products that are compostable. He also said they realized a lot of food waste will happen in the back-of-house during prep, so having clear signage, proper training, and a large food scraps bin will make for easy composting.

The next step, he said, is to think about how the trash and recycling receptacles looks for guests. Making signage as clear as possible is very important.

4. Remember Your Values

Strong values are the driving force behind change. Having people on your team who believe in those values is essential. “People want to work for a company where they’re not just throwing everything in the landfill. And they want to feel good about working here. So, I think that’s the biggest thing,” Erin said. “I know that’s something that kept me working here. I love our Commitment to Zero. I love what our company does for the sustainability realm.”

Park City Mountain, through the support of Vail Resorts EpicPromise, has sponsored the incentive program for the Community Foundation’s Zero Food Waste program. Be one of the first 1,000 households to sign up in the 84060 and 84098 zip codes and you’ll receive a starter kit and your first month free. Learn more and sign up here!