Sonnenalp Sustainability Report
Green Star Committee
Vision: To identify wasted resources and to improve and educate our efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Sonnenalp Sustainability Policy
To Meet This Commitment, The Sonnenalp Hotel Will Endeavor To:
- Work diligently to minimize our waste stream and conserve natural resources, particularly through comprehensive recycling, responsible purchasing, energy and water conservation
- Value the natural and cultural heritage of our area, allowing us to give our guests an authentic experience
- Make environmental considerations an important aspect of decision-making throughout the hotel
- Regularly review, measure and improve the objectives of our Sustainability Policy
- Consider the opinions and feedback of our guests and employees when examining our environmental programs and procedures
- Identify areas for improvement and innovation at the property level and support the efforts of our guests and employees
- Provide employees with the opportunities and incentives to be environmentally responsible
- Provide guests with opportunities to be environmentally responsible
- Establish specific environmental, economic and social goals and processes to measure, monitor and improve by at least 5% per year, reported annually, as stipulated in our Policies & Procedures.
Our Community Effort
Highway Clean Up: Every year the Sonnenalp Hotel puts together a team of dedicated employees to clean up our two miles of adopted highway by the East Vail area of I-70.
Bike to Work Day: Once a year ECO Trails puts together Vail's Bike to Work Day. Sonnenalp and ECO Trails share a booth across from the Sonnenalp, serving fruit, pastries, bagels, Gatorade, coffee and water to those who choose to bike to work.
Adopt-a-trail: Sonnenalp employees do trail maintenance for our trails in Minturn, Cougar Ridge trail or in Singletree, Avon Connector Trail. Volunteers will keep the Trail passable and report trail conditions to The Colorado Trail Foundation.
River Clean Up: The Sonnenalp team picks up litter along Eagle River near the Minturn exit area. After a hard morning's work of pickup, volunteers gathered for a great lunch served by the Arrowhead Alpine Club
Eagle Valley Wild
The Sonnenalp is a proud sponsor of Eagle Valley Wild, a visual storytelling project that benefits conservation initiatives throughout the Vail Valley. EVW reveals the beauty & value of Eagle County's land, water and wildlife to the local community and its visitors to increase awareness, appreciation and protection of the region's most important natural assets. The Sonnenalp understands the importance of respecting and protecting the natural assets that make Vail such a wonderful place and feel it is our responsibility to pass this understanding on to our guests in a unique manner.
Our Focus on Green
Engineering: LED Lights - Continue our conversion to LED lighting
Food & Beverage: Cork Recycling - The cork recycling program is our effort to help keep cork, a reusable product, out of landfills. All of the Sonnenalp Hotel's restaurants recycle our corks. We are also the only official public cork recycling drop-off center in Vail.
Food Scraps - We collaborated with our local trash collection company to be able to start composting.
Housekeeping: Left over Water - Housekeepers use water left in water bottles to water plants in the rooms and the flower boxes in the summer instead of pouring the water down the drain
Human Resources: Paperless HR System - HR is converted to a paperless payroll system, on-boarding system and employee file system.
Purchasing: Paperless Inventory - Purchasing is switching to a paperless inventory this will reduce our paper usage by 540 pieces/ year
Spa: Products - The purchase of re-usable containers for treatment products has cut down on our plastic usage.
Awards & Accolades
Actively Green - Certified 2015 - Actively Green 2015 is an initiative of the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. It's a drive to elevate the Vail Valley community·s sustainability performance, while further solidifying its reputation as a world- class tourism destination and event host.
Colorado Environmental Leadership Program - Gold Leader Status - sponsored by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The State of Colorado supports companies like the Sonnenalp that care about the environment.
