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Shapeshift-Ecopods Partnership
Mad River Makes Mad Efforts to Go Green!
Off Square Theater Company
Andy Tyson
Keith Sunshine and Liz Scriven
Donna Baur

Since 2006, Mad River has been making the transformation to a green company. Some of the changes are big, some are small but every change brings us closer to being green. We realize that this is not an overnight change and that often goals and deadlines for change are pushed forward due to cost factors. These are a few of the things we have been working on. As always, this is a learning process...

One of the very first initiatives we implemented, (even before 2006) was a recycling program. We have bins dedicated to different materials such as paper, glass and aluminum. These bins are taken to the local recycling center once a week or once every two weeks, depending on need. All our employees are encouraged to recycle and we don't have any trouble getting anyone to follow this program. Everyone does it willingly, which is great! To reduce consumption and waste, we started a basket in our office for paper that was only printed on one side. We use that paper once more before recycling it (again, since it was recycled paper in the first place). Our brochures and stationary are printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based inks.

We restructured our lunch meal to reduce the amount of waste we were creating. We started with a plastic lunch container, a personal size chip bag, a plastic fruit cup and an individually packaged juice drink or water bottle and a sandwich wrapped in saran wrap. We did away with the lunch container altogether, our sandwiches are now served on a platter. We traded the fruit cup for an apple, also served on a platter, (we buy a box of apples at a time and the box is corrugated cardboard which can be recycled). We mix a batch of lemonade and serve it in a cooler with a compostable paper cup, doing away with individually packaged juice or water bottles. We still have waste from the bag of chips and the saran wrap on the sandwich, but we're working on solutions to eliminate waste altogether.

To reduce our energy usage and cost we have slowly started replacing our incandescent lightbulbs with led lights in our office and living areas. We purchase 100% wind power from Lower Valley Energy. Although the cost to do this is usually higher than a traditional energy bill, we can offset the cost by using less. We turn off lights during the day when the sun lights up our office. We have signs above light switches reminding people to reduce usage whenever possible.

We recently purchased a waterless urinal for the men's restroom in our office. By the end of 2009 all faucets and shower heads will be outfitted with low flow aerators. We have switched most of our chemicals to green products. One exception is the special shampoo we use for our wetsuits. We have not found an appropriate green alternative for this product.

We also have a selection of "green" t-shirts for sale. EMI makes a bamboo t-shirt that we've purchased to sell in our store. This is the first year we've offered bamboo shirts and are excited to see how they sell.

For this year, our project is to start a composting program incorporating compostable waste from our employees living on site and from our customers participating in our meal trips. This compost will be turned into a usable product for our own landscaping around the building. We also want to start a small employee garden on the south side of our building where employees can grow herbs and vegetables for their own consumption.

In the future we want to alter our menu to incorporate more products found locally. We want to feature locally grown produce and meat/fish from the rocky mountain region.