Green Biz PC

Park City, Utah

Green Team

Food Waste

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We’re all guilty of food waste, and now our environment is begging us to reduce it. Summit County’s bars and restaurants waste is 66% organics and residential waste is 36% organics. Reducing food waste is ranked in the top ten solutions to mitigating climate change in an article by the World Resources Institute. Paul Hawken in Drawdown ranks reduced food waste as #3 out of 100 important ways to reverse global warming by 2050. Hawken states, “The food we waste is roughly 8% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. People who need food are not getting it, and the food that is not getting consumed is heating up the planet.”

We are extremely fortunate in Summit County to have ways to donate food and compost. Contact the Christian Center of Park City (CCPC) for ways to donate uneaten food for those in need; subscribe to Momentum to compost business or event food waste or Spoil to Soil for residential. Or, start composting at your home with a backyard bin or electric composter. 

Change is not easy, it’s certainly easy to refuse to do. But how long can our resilient Earth stand up to our human actions? Make it your goal today to start a food waste plan in 2023 for your home and workplace. Our community will thank you for it.  

Mary Closser
Recycle Utah Education Director

All Seasons Adventures Ditches Plastic Water Bottles

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All Seasons Adventures knows the importance of providing water to their summer customers. The higher price point of plastic-free alternatives has always been a barrier, until this summer. They reworked their pricing and are very excited to finally switch to a resealable, aluminum water bottle for their 100+ customers on the Weber River, and more. Looking forward, they hope to assist more local businesses to do the same, possibly with bulk order collaboration! Contact Caroline for more information.

Park City Library Seeks Sustainable Certification

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The Park City Library is currently working on the Sustainable Libraries Initiative certificate program. One initiative they launched last year is the Sustainability Resource Center, inspiring awareness and action through unique displays, books and creative tools to help our residential and business community gain knowledge on climate change, economics and sustainability. Learn more about Park City Library’s Sustainability Resource Center here.

Este Pizza Reaches 7,500 Pounds of Compost

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Food waste is an enormous issue for restaurants, especially in our tourist town where many people do not take leftovers. Este Pizza Park City is thrilled to know that any leftover food at Este is taken care of in a sustainable way. Training staff is simple due to the comprehensive signage that Momentum, the hauler, provides. The compost is efficiently collected 1x/week in slow seasons and 2x/week during busy. Contact Carissa with questions.

Green Business Program Awarded at Intermountain Sustainability Summit

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On March 23, 2023 Park City, Recycle Utah, Summit County, the Park City Chamber of Commerce and the Park City Community Foundation received the Inaugural Sustainability Collaboration Award.  The ISS Sustainability Collaboration Award recognizes sustainability professionals implementing partnerships to amplify their influence and impact.  This team was nominated by local sustainability professional Trish Kenlon for engaging businesses in Park City and Summit County to identify sustainable actions through the Green Business Program. 

I am so proud of the work this team has done. I recently read a quote that said “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean” from Ryunosuke Satoro. By collaborating, this group has supported businesses in new ways such as Lunch & Learns (join us 5/17!), Green Business Awards, and opportunities for local businesses to celebrate success and learn from each other. We should all be proud of the model created here locally in our community.

Onward!

Carolyn Wawra

Executive Director, Recycle Utah

What do concepts like community and equity have to do with sustainability?  

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When the new Green Business program categories were unveiled, one may have stood out to you as an outlier: Thriving Community & Equity.

We often think of sustainability as ‘meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ Of course, part of this means ensuring that the natural environment is healthy, but it also means ensuring people and communities have what they need to thrive. 

From a business perspective, social sustainability is about understanding the impacts of businesses on people and society. For your business, social sustainability may not always be as clearly defined or tangible as environmental sustainability, but it’s vitally important for the health of your business and our community. Directly or indirectly, companies affect what happens to employees, workers in the value chain, customers and local communities, and it is important to manage impacts proactively. 

Our business community has a huge impact in how our community embraces human rights, fair labor practices, living conditions, health, safety, wellness, diversity, equity, work-life balance, empowerment, community engagement, and philanthropy. Remember, all aspects of sustainability are about continuous improvement. As with environmental sustainability, social sustainability has no endpoint. If we keep working, we can find our way together.