Environmental savers:

Restaurants
An unusual piece of equipment designed into the Granite Peaks Lodge is "somat", an advanced, remote waste pulping system. The system takes all the food waste and slurries it with water and fiber to create a paper mache-like by product, reducing solid waste. In addition, "china", rather than paper products is used throughout the Granite Peaks Lodge. This greatly reduces paper and plastic waste.

Nordic Center Adopt-a-Highway
For the past 9 years the Stevens Pass Nordic Center has "adopted" their own section of U.S. 2, keeping it clean of litter. Once a year the staff and their friends volunteer a day for the cleanup, located between milepost 70 and 72, the section of highway near the Nordic Center entrance on the westbound and eastbound lanes of the divided highway. Much of the litter is recycled-aluminum cans and plastic bottles are separated from the rest of the trash.

Employee Transit Wins "Best Workplaces for Commuters"
Stevens Pass has received the designation of one of the "Best workplaces for Commuters" from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, based on the strength of our free Employee Transit System. Stevens supports its employees and cares about the environment.

Begun over a decade ago, the Stevens Pass Employee Transit System provides over 2 million employee passenger miles per season. With an average ride distance of 75 miles round trip, and a typical seasonal employee working 90 days, this equates to a reduction of over 3000 miles of wear on a personal vehicle, assuming employees would otherwise carpool with a partner for every trip.

Water Conservation
In 2004 the Stevens Pass Sewer District won the Silver Eagle Award for Excellence in Water Conservation at the National Ski Areas Association convention in Savannah, Ga. Established in 1993, the Silver Eagle awards program annually recognizes exceptional environmental achievement by North American ski and snowboard facilities. The Stevens Pass Sewer District instituted a $7.5 million program that developed and installed new state-of-the-art technology — called a membrane bioreactor (MBR) wastewater system. The new treatment system produces a high-quality effluent that exceeds all Washington Department of Ecology requirements and addresses important secondary objectives like simplicity of operation and accommodation of variable flows, remote sensing, and monitoring.

Fish Habitat Protection
When the SkyLine Express Quad was constructed in the summer of 1996, a base terminal design was used which achieved two goals: (1) the resident cutthroat trout habitat in the two streams adjacent to the site were not disturbed, and (2) a pre-existing culvert in one of the creeks was removed, and a new creek-bed created in its place, resulting in additional useable habitat. In 1997 the project received the Skiing Company's (publisher of Ski Magazine, skiing Magazine, Transworld Snowboarding, etc.) Silver Eagle Award for Excellence in Fish and Wildlife Habitat Protection.

Guest Park and Ride Program
Begun in the 2000-'01 season, Stevens Pass again providing a scheduled park and ride service, based at the Mountain View Chevron in Sultan. In 2002-2003 the system was expanded to include 48 weekdays during January and February, as well as 21 weekend days and holidays. The program was designed to reduce single vehicle usage of the upper Stevens Pass Highway, reduce parking demand at the resort, and provide a transportation service that gives guests an option to driving snow-covered mountain roads.

Vegetation Management Program
One of the program's primary goals is to maintain the maximum forest cover that is compatible with safe and varied skiing and snowboarding. To that end, operating plans and training documents emphasize the protection of tree groves from possible mechanical damage by snow grooming equipment and other operating machinery.
Where ground-disturbing re-contouring occurs on ski trails, Stevens Pass summer crews immediately mulch and seed with Forest Service approved grass seed mixes to protect against short-term soil erosion. Over a period of years native plants will re-enter these sites. Transplanting of native plants is also done in specific areas of the mountain. The result of these efforts is an esthetically appealing and ecologically benign series of managed plant communities.

Environmental Education Programs
Stevens Pass has supported financially, logistically, and philosophically the ski with a Ranger program initiated and operated by the Forest Service. This environmental education program is focused primarily on youth enrolled in a number of the ski and snowboard schools operating at Stevens.

Sustainable Slopes the Environmental Charter for Ski Areas
The National Ski Areas Association, together with its member ski areas and partnering organizations, have created an environmental charter a set of voluntary environmental principles to aid in ski area planning, operations and outreach. The Charter reaffirms the commitment ski areas have in improving environmental performance in all aspects of operations and managing their specific resorts, making possible their continued enjoyment by future generations - true sustainability. Ski areas have provided recreation to millions of guests each year on a very small portion of public land, especially in the Northwest. This very efficient and closely managed utilization of resources limits total impact on mountain ecosystems.