Yeah, yeah, blogs are supposed to be about timely content, but unfortunately our social media intern has been having a ravenous stomach bug recently so he’s barely been able to hold it together in front of his laptop. So we’re still posting stuff from our Colorado trip back from early Feb. But lots of good stuff to cover.
After the ro-deo that is Winter X, we hung around Aspen for a few days for a bunch of meetings, visits to Aspen High, Basalt High, and Colorado Rocky Mountain School, as well as a big meeting in town to launch our environmental sustainability initiatives. On hand with Nathan Ratledge from the City of Aspen’s Community Office for Resource Efficiency, Griff Smith, the Bariloche liason for the Aspen Sister Cities program, Marta Darby from the City of Aspen’s Canary Initiative, and the lovely Karinjo DeVore, President of the Aspen International Mountain Foundation and the one who helped us pull the whole thing together.
After some coffee (it’s not "manfee" unless we make it) from Ink, we got to talking about our plans to partner the City of Aspen with SASS and the city of Bariloche to make sure our operations in Argentina put less of a strain on local resources and the environment, and brainstorm ways to educate and involve the great people of Bariloche in our efforts. Lots of really great ideas were thrown around but we’ll be working hardest to convert one of our buses to run on waste veggie oil from town restaurants (which reduces carbon emissions by 80% versus diesel fuel), weatherize the hotel (improve insulation as well as seal leaky windows, ducts, doors, etc. that reduce heating efficiency), retrofit lightbulbs and other appliances (increasing energy efficiency) and possibly build and run a greenhouse as a co-op with the local community, providing fresh produce both for you guys this summer as well as for the locals. During the South American winter, produce gets very expensive for the natives because it’s mostly shipped in from Chile, and vegetables are a crucial aspect of maintaining healthy diets, especially in low-income households. While a lot depends on finding partners in Argentina who will take on these projects with their own energy and motivation, we’re optimistic about our sustainability program and it was clear from our meeting that we have a great support system in Aspen for our efforts. Look forward to hearing more as our plans develop!
