Commitment to Sustainability
As a company made up of outdoor recreation enthusiasts, All Seasons Adventures is committed to lessening its environmental impact to create a positive contribution to the lands we recreate on both personally and professionally. We hope to reduce our environmental impacts in the areas of energy, water and material usage, as well as create an equitable sustainability vision through transportation and community goals.
Because we rely on our environment and employees to thrive, sustainability has been on the forefront of our minds since our inception. For Environmental sustainability, All Seasons Adventures has always focused on non-motorized guided adventures, informing town’s guests on how to recreate responsibly, reducing and recycling waste and minimizing water usage. Our social Sustainability is shown in our commitment to this community and employees through our many donations to local causes, donating used gear to local non-profits or state agencies, Adopt A Trail sponsorship, and employee training. Looking ahead we hope to continue to improve in both aspects with specifics outlined below. Areas that need to be addressed are volunteering, water usage, continuing efforts to reduce waste and recycle more, informing our guests of ours’ and towns’ sustainability efforts.
Energy
Currently, our windows in the office all have sun shades, we turn off all LED lights when we leave the office for the day, and only utilize one printer. Additionally, the office is kept at a reasonable temperature during summer and winter months respectively and all computers are shutdown or enter sleep mode after hours. As an outdoor business with no retail space, we don’t believe energy usage is an outrageously high environmental impact of ours, but we will continue to keep up on the efforts we do undertake, as well as be on the lookout for other best practices as they emerge.
Water
We do not have turf, or any other landscaping on more than 25% of our property and have a low flush toilet. Additionally we utilize a flow regulator on our hose which is used to wash gear in our parking lot. The waste from which we are cautious to not pour into storm drains, or into the adjacent Poison Creek to keep any cleaning chemicals out of our watershed. No foliage around our office is watered for maintenance. We even use leftover water in water bottles from our trips to refill our dog bowl! In the summer months our guides regularly perform river clean up runs on the Weber River to collect any trash that’s made its way into our water.
One of our biggest forms of waste and water usage is our use of single use plastic water bottles on our adventures. While we recognize providing water to guests is essential for outdoor activities, we are committed to not only incentivizing guests to bring their own reusable water bottles from home, but also exploring options to switch to offering aluminum canned water. We hope to have a plan for this replacement in place by January 2024, which we hope involves collaborative partnerships with other local businesses in an effort to not only reduce our usage, but town’s in general. We also hope to encourage our employees and potentially even our guests to participate in watershed cleanup projects within the Park City area by the Summer of 2023. We will also be studying our water usage habits to identify any other large use areas so we can identify ways to reduce it by the Summer of 2023.
Materials
Procurement
Many of our materials/equipment are of high quality and used by thousands before new equipment is needed. Additionally, most suppliers we source our equipment through have strong commitments to sustainability of their own and are working to reduce their packaging material as well. For instance, Scott Bikes has greatly reduced all plastics in their packaging in recent years, as well as our catering company Savory Kitchen, who is prioritizing the usage of recyclable packaging for the lunches you can eat on our adventures! Lastly, we utilize PFAS free ski wax for our cross country adventures, to avoid leaving hazardous chemicals on our landscapes.
Efforts we hope to make moving forward include being more vigilant about offering feedback to suppliers on shipping waste, as well as ensuring to work with suppliers that are making conscious efforts to improve their supply chain sustainability to reduce waste throughout the procurement process. We hope to have a report on our procurement and supply chain waste in an effort to improve by January 2024 once we’ve gone through a year of tracking gear deliveries.
Waste
We currently recycle at least three materials from our business, and donate or sell old gear that is still in working condition. When it comes time to purchase new equipment, we donate as much of the old equipment as possible. Cross country ski boots and skis have been donated to the National Ability Center, and we recently donated 100 PFDs to Utah State Parks. Materials that can not be reused are recycled appropriately through Recycle Utah.
We hope to undergo a waste audit in both March of 2023 and August of 2023 to collect a good baseline for a week’s worth of waste in both our busy winter and summer months so we can form a plan to reduce that amount by 2024. We also will be updating our guest communications with stronger language to encourage them bringing their own reusable water bottles on excursions to reduce the amount of single use water bottles we’re handing out by March of 2023.
Transportation
We pick up all guests we take out and carpool to the trailheads for our adventures, which can remove a reason for guests to feel like they need to rent a vehicle when they visit town. Additionally, we have a bike rack and bikes available for employee usage to get around town. As a company that offers transportation for all of our activities, this allows us to carpool, loading each vehicle up with multiple guests. In the winters, we have a desk at Snow Park Lodge and utilize public transportation to get our office staff up there and back, (covid transmission rates taken into consideration).
Our two biggest transportation hindrances at this time are the fact that over 50% of our staff commutes up to Park City in personal vehicles from the Salt Lake Valley and the use of fossil fuels in the fleet of older vehicles we use to transport guests in. We are working to create a fund to be utilized for electric vehicle replacement of current vehicles by 2025 as a means to not only help us become more environmentally sustainable, but also help Park City reach its 2030 goal of being a net zero community. Additionally, while some guides already choose to carpool together on their own, as High Valley Transit increases its offerings of public transit options between Salt Lake City and Park City we hope to offer travel incentives to our employees to take the bus or carpool with each other to get to and from work by 2024.
Social Equity & Thriving Community
A living wage for Summit County, UT is $17/hour. While we pay our guides per trip, it amounts to about $20/hour offering a living wage and having no wage gaps based on gender or race. Making our pay both equal regardless of the person, and well above the national average. Additionally, we are a business that strives for diversity and inclusion amongst our staff. Our values are shared in our guide protocol book which is read by all staff and includes great detail discussing our desire for a diverse and discrimination free workplace with avenues for employees to take action if help is needed. All training for the job is free and for most activities, employees are able to use company equipment lessening their economic burden. In the instances that employees are required to purchase their own equipment, higher pay per trip is reflective of that fiscal commitment they have made. For our office staff, pay is raised annually. Lastly, we provide fun outings for employees like mountain bike rides and BBQs in the summer after work, or our annual multi-day guide retreat at the end of the summer season as a thank you for all of their hard work. When it comes to the greater Park City community, we donate to a variety of causes both monetarily and via activity donations for fundraising events.
How we hope to improve is our commitment to the greater Park City community. We hope to reach this goal by requiring all office staff to volunteer at least two half days within the year at a local nonprofit on a day off for 8 hours of pay. We also will monetarily incentive seasonal guides to volunteer annually. These changes will be implemented by the Summer of 2023. Additionally as a way to take advantage of our position as being a contact point for many visitors to Park City, we are developing a Park City Sustainability GPS Adventure Race which we hope to partner with the city and local nonprofits. This teambuilding activity will show guests how they can recreate and visit Park City responsibly, while sharing the sustainability vision and goals of the town in a way that makes it easier for visitors to participate in and contribute to. We hope to have this team building offering up and running by the Summer of 2023.