Community Engagement
Grand Targhee has worked continually to build relationships with the local community to move towards greater sustainability. Below is a list of ways in which we give back to the communities that make our ski resort one of the best in the west.
Over the past four years, Targhee has contributed over $600,000 in cash and in-kind donations to local non-profit organizations.
Targhee has developed and led workshops on green building, renewable energy and organic gardening, which have taken place in the local community
The resort led the first Teton Valley Sustainability Fair in 2008
The resort also takes advantage of the popular music festivals to provide important information and fun activities at the sustainability “Chill” tent. This booth has information about resort sustainability efforts, composting, and global environmental issues. Visitors can also make their own milkshake with a bike powered blender, run a solar powered toy car and watch “low carbon” outdoor adventure films on a projector powered by solar energy.
The resort’s “Targhee in the Community” program supports community projects by paying resort employees to volunteer for local organizations that support and pursue recreational, environmental, educational, and benevolent opportunities and enrichment. In 2007, employees donated 150 hours to non-profit, environmental projects in Teton Valley through this program. The response from the employees has been tremendous; our most recent collaboration was with Friends of the Teton River to help with their “Unnamed Creek Restoration Project.”
Grand Targhee Resort established an environmental foundation in 2004 to provide financial support to organizations within Teton Valley which promote environmental stewardship through their actions. In 2007, the resort partnered with
Protect our Winters (POW), a national non-profit dedicated to uniting the winter sports community to address climate change. With this partnership, the environmental foundation became the Targhee Protect Our Winters Foundation. Since it's inception in 2004, this foundation has awarded over $50,000 in grants to local non-profits.
Grand Targhee Resort employees voluntarily sign up to contribute to the foundation through payroll deductions. Management matches funds generated by employee contributions. Grant applications are actively requested from community organizations for project proposals. The proposals are then reviewed and awarded by the “Green Team”- a group of dedicated employees that donate their time to oversee the use of funds generated by the foundation. The “Green Team” is lead by Grand Targhee Resort's Sustainability Director, Christina Thomure.
2010 grant recipients include:
National Outdoor Leadership School: $2,000 for solar panel installation & education project, will provide 30% of the school’s electricity use
Friends of the Teton River: $2,000 for a Valley-wide water conservation education campaign
Teton Valley Community Recycling: $750 for creation of a short educational film regarding recycling to show throughout the Valley
Teton Valley Community School: $2,000 to provide farm & gardening education to 150 school children this summer
Teton Valley Education Foundation: $2,000 for sponsoring public high school student’s conservation expeditions to Yellowstone
Teton Valley Trails & Pathways: $1,680 to fund one trail crew person to work in the wilderness improving trails
In the summer of 2010, the resort introduced a new program that allows community members to volunteer for local non-profit efforts in exchange for winter lift tickets.
Forward Thinking . . .
The resort is working with regional educational institutions to consider providing on-site courses in sustainability.