Going for 0% in 2018-Going Green to the Extreme!

Going for 0% in 2018!

Over the past several years we have enjoyed some great success in our business and have tried hard to be “Stewards” of the outdoors.  In our effort to be bigger and better we were partially neglecting one thing.  We are now creating so much garbage in our outfitting operation, from lunch service to water bottles and protein bar wrappers…Leave no trace, pack it in pack it out…are great philosophies and we have always adhered to them.  Last year we took a real look at our outfitting operation from the perspective of what are we bringing in…to pack out?  First off was the containers and service ware for our lunches that we provide on all full day trips.  The second and most unacceptable was the 4,000-5,000 single serve plastic bottles that our outfitting was generating each year.  Once we stepped back and looked at the numbers we were pretty upset as much as anything that it took us this long to take action as a organization.

As an organization with 30 plus employees we need to create a policy:

-That does 3 things. Eliminates the single service H2O bottle from our operation entirely.  A lofty goal, but we are serious.

-Doing so in a way that is affordable to us our guides and our guests.

– Create awareness and action through a contribution campaign from any re-usable bottle sales going towards the effort to do what’s right (i.e. Kick Plastic)

Our amazing caterer Northside kitchen located here in Avon, CO stepped right up with using Eco-friendly packaging at no extra charge and cutting the amount of packaging in almost ½ last year.  The staff at Northside is already working on ways to provide use with the eco-friendliest service ware… for 2018.

The next issue we looked at is providing cold clean drinking water to our guests on all our trips.  We studied a several options including a plastic surcharge on trips to help fund recycling efforts, to not providing water. Obviously, those were well outside the box ideas.  What we have ultimately settled on is a program by which each guide will have water available to refill a re-suable aluminum bottle, that either your guide will supply, or guests can supply their own.  Guests will have the option to purchase a FFO logo re-usable aluminum bottle of their own at a nominal price.  A percentage of the proceeds from the bottle sales will go to a specific conservation organization to be determined.   The best of all worlds is that almost everyone these days owns some sort of a reusable water container.

Please BRING YOUR OWN and we will supply the water.

We are going to partner with Klean Kanteen  https://www.kleankanteen.com/ in 2018 to implement this new program.  Klean Kanteen is a leader in conservation and a great partner.  Our entire guide staff will be outfitted with Klean Kanteen products t begin next season.  Our shop will carry Klean Kanteen aluminum re-usable bottles for purchase.  A portion of proceeds from bottle sales will go towards conservation efforts.

As part of our commitment we will promise to update this blog regularly to help keep us honest.