Clif Bar Greens Slopes to Fight Global
Warming
Source: GreenBiz.com
BERKELEY, Calif., Nov. 9, 2005 - Clif Bar is launching a nationwide
campaign this winter to help ski resorts, skiers, and snowboarders
combat global warming, which threatens to reduce snowfall and jeopardize
winter sports for years to come.
Clif Bar will be a partner in the 2006 Golden Eagle Awards program,
which honors the nation's most eco-friendly ski resorts. The company
also will enable winter sports enthusiasts to purchase renewable energy
to offset their own impact on global climate change, gain access to
carpools and public transit, and educate themselves on other ways to
offset greenhouse gases.
As a partner in the 2006 Golden Eagle Awards, Clif Bar will reward two
ski resorts that demonstrate the strongest commitment to environmental
excellence through energy conservation, clean energy use, habitat
protection and other efforts. The 2006 Golden Eagle Award winner will
receive a cash prize. The Silver Eagle Award recipient will receive a
green energy credit to fund enough renewable energy to run a ski lift
"pollution free" for the entire ski season. The Golden Eagle Awards are
a partnership of the National Ski Areas Association, Natural Resources
Defense Council, and Clif Bar.
Separately, Clif Bar & Co. will purchase clean wind power to help at
least five other ski resorts offset the energy used to run their ski
lifts. They include Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah, and
four in the Lake Tahoe Area: Kirkwood, Alpine Meadows, Sugar Bowl, and
Northstar.
Clif Bar also will make it possible for winter resort-goers to purchase
green energy credits. These credits fund clean, renewable wind power to
offset the greenhouse gases cars generate on a ski vacation. At some
resorts, Clif Bar will sell "Cool Tags" developed in partnership with
NativeEnergy. Each $2 Cool Tag funds enough wind energy to offset the
global warming impact of 300 miles of auto travel. Clif Bar also is
sponsoring a similar SkiGreen Mini-Tag program with the Bonneville
Environmental Foundation at ski resorts in Lake Tahoe and the Northwest.
Last winter, ski-goers bought nearly 5,000 Mini-Tags, funding clean wind
energy equivalent to the output needed to power 50 U.S. homes for one
year.
In addition to energy offset and ski resort programs, Clif Bar will this
winter:
- Develop a public service announcement (PSA) on global warming to
educate ski resort guests. The PSA begins airing in January on the
Resort Sports Network (RSN TV)
- Partner with skicarpool.com to encourage skiers to carpool to
resorts in Colorado
- Provide Clif Bars to encourage use of the University of Colorado
Ski Bus serving the Breckenridge and Keystone resorts on weekends
“Last year's erratic snowfall and ongoing reports of Arctic ice melt
should signal us that global warming may already be diminishing the
winter season,” said Ricardo Balazs of Clif Bar. “We’re excited to join
forces with ski resorts, their guests, and visitors to save our natural
environment and reduce the impact of global warming.”
Scientists now predict global warming will diminish snowpack in the
Western United States by up to 70% in the coastal mountains over the
next 50 years. Studies also forecast that ski resorts in the Rocky
Mountains will be all but shut down by 2050 if global warming continues
at its current rate.
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