Vail Is Already an Exceptional Place. And We’re Making It Even Better
The Town of Vail and community are committed to sustainability efforts, including waste reduction, energy conservation, renewable energy, green building, ecosystem health, alternative transportation and fuels, public education and social and economic development. The Town of Vail is committed to the stewardship and protection of our unique mountain environment so that our guests today and into the future can experience the best that Vail has to offer. Below highlights the many ways Vail is putting talk into action:
Electric Buses
Two of four electric buses have been put into operation for the Town of Vail in town bus route. The third has arrived and will be in placed in operation soon and the fourth is in final stages of production. The town received additional grant funding to purchase an additional four buses in 2023 and has a goal of converting its transit fleet to fully electric buses by 2032.
Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
To accommodate the growing demand for electric vehicle charging capacity, 12 multi-port Level 2 electric vehicle ChargePoint charging stations are available (6 in the Vail Village parking structure, 1 in the Lionshead garage and 5 in the Red Sandstone Parking Garage). These Level 2 Stations are free to use and depending on utilization may deliver 10 to 20 miles of range per hour of charging. In addition, there are 4 single-port Level 3 DC Fast Chargers available in the short-term parking of the Lionshead Parking Structure. These Level 3 charging stations can deliver 60 to 80 miles of range in 20 minutes of charging and have an associated cost to use.
Awards
Sustainable Destination Recertification: The Vail Destination achieved recertification of the Mountain IDEAL standard. Led by Vail’s Destination Stewardship Council and Steering Committee, the collective efforts of community stakeholders showed continuous improvement on the 44 sustainable destination best practices covering themes such as community planning, visitor use, stakeholder engagement, emergency response, cultural and natural heritage preservation, and environmental conservation.
Best of the Americas’ Award: The Vail community was honored with the 2020 ‘Best in Americas’ Award for continued progress made toward waste diversion in a mountain community. The award was presented by Green Destinations, a global non-profit foundation promoting sustainable tourism.
Global Top 100 Destination: Vail was recognized as a Global Top 100 Destination in 2020 through Green Destinations Top 100 Destination Sustainability Stories award program for its COVID-19 response, recovery, and resilience.
Climate Leader Award: Vail was recognized as one of 88 cities across the globe that continued to lead on environmental action during the year. Vail’s “A” list rating for 2020 was awarded by CDP Cities, a global emissions reporting platform
Community & Business Wide Programs
Climate Action Plan 2020 Update Adopted: Vail will join other Eagle County communities in working to achieve a 25% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050.
Actively Green Certification:
A sustainability training and certification program for all businesses, including the tourism industry. Actively Green provides a framework of sustainable business criteria and performance indicators that support any business in elevating performance with the use of best management practices specific to sustainability principles.
Energy Efficiency Program: Town of Vail partners with Energy Smart Colorado and Walking Mountains Science Center to provide free energy audits and double rebates for energy efficiency upgrades for residents and businesses in Vail.
Business Recycling Challenge: includes free, customized training, progress reports and bragging rights in four award categories. Hosted by the town’s environmental sustainability team in partnership with Walking Mountain Science Center.
Restore the Gore: The Town of Vail is committed to educating local residents and businesses about the challenges of protecting Gore Creek’s delicate eco-system. Part of this involves sharing resources and information about the issues, risks, and steps that members of our community can take to help Restore the Gore.
Sole Power Green Commuting Challenge: Sole Power is the free green commuting challenge for Eagle County residents that supports active transportation such as biking, walking and skating instead of motorized options to commute to work, run errands or attend social engagements. Participants get outside, get fit, reduce their carbon footprint, save money, win prizes and have fun. Previous years saw 280 participants logging nearly 51,000 miles and reducing over 46,600 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere..
Compost Pilot Program: Town of Vail and Vail Honeywagon kick off the West Vail Residential Curbside Compost Pilot Program.
LEARN MORE ABOUT VAIL’S SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS