If you were one of the over 90,000 attendees at the 2024 edition of the Vail Valley Foundation’s GoPro Mountain Games, you may have noticed scattered green tents featuring specific recycling, compost, and landfill bins. These Zero Hero tents, placed in partnership with local nonprofit Walking Mountains Science Center, are just one aspect of the event's sustainability mission.
Waste diversion efforts reach new peak
In 2023, the GoPro Mountain Games diverted 87% of waste produced at the festival away from local landfills. Always looking to improve, the goal for 2024 was set at a 90% diversion rate. The VVF is thrilled to announce that a new record-high of 91% of waste from the 2024 GoPro Mountain Games was able to be diverted away from local landfills and toward compost, recycling and reduction efforts.
At each of the Zero Hero tent stations, members of the VVF’s Aventon Green Team — the biggest volunteer force we assemble for any event — assist and educate guests with determining which container to correctly place their waste in. Then, all waste from across the event, including the Mountains of Music concert series at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, is transported to a central location. Here, 25 Walking Mountains staff members hand-sort each piece of waste daily to ensure that everything produced at the event is directed toward the optimal waste process, whether that be compost, recycling, or — new in 2024 — Vail Resorts’ soft plastics and snack wrapper processing methods. Additionally, stations for cardboard and greywater (remains of liquids and drinks that would typically enter the creek system in Vail) were implemented to direct even more waste to the correct processes.
The 91% diversion rate is an incredible achievement and a source of great pride, but the GoPro Mountain Games’ sustainability mission is comprised of so much more than just waste diversion.
Vendor partnerships focus on sustainability mission
Outlined by vendor guidelines established with the help of Walking Mountains, the GoPro Mountain Games is proud to exclusively partner with vendors who comply with and support the sustainability initiative. To name just a few of these vendors and how they contribute to the ultimate goal:
- Sun Bum provides and promotes reef-friendly sunscreen at all water events such as rafting, kayaking and fishing competitions
- Nature Valley distributes 600 towels at the Nature Valley Mountain Mud Run that are sustainably manufactured and made of upcycled materials — this effort makes the towels significantly more expensive, but it is a cost that Nature Valley is willing to take on to align with the sustainability mission
- Isopure funds a separate waste service to properly process a product that cannot be processed with the infrastructure in place at the GoPro Mountain Games
- Tin Cup Whiskey has historically donated $1 to Restore the Gore for each purchase of whiskey during the event
- The Town of Vail provides funds to the festival in exchange for promotion of “Love Vail,” the town’s sustainability program
As part of the vendor guidelines on sustainability, vendors must ensure that any samples given out are entirely compostable. Additionally, the GoPro Mountain Games works with partners to reduce packaging to decrease how much waste enters the event. For example, Nature Valley removes all cardboard and paperboard packaging from their products prior to the event, only bringing individually packaged bars to Vail. Efforts such as these from partners help minimize the negative environmental impact of the festival.
Protect our Playgrounds reaches third year
2024 also marked the third year of the Protect our Playgrounds initiative, which centers around the acknowledgement that recreating in nature can be damaging to the environment and thus we need to give back to the areas where we play and compete. As part of the initiative, VVF staff volunteer a day of service at a sustainability-oriented effort after the conclusion of each GoPro Mountain Games.
In 2022 and 2023, staff volunteered with Eagle River Watershed Council and Restore the Gore, respectively. This year, VVF staff volunteered at Vail Mountain’s annual mountain clean-up day, picking up trash and lost items on the mountain.
Other sustainable practices and efforts
Additional important efforts taken at the GoPro Mountain Games include promoting carpooling and the use of bikes or public transportation to get to the event, providing a free water refill station at each base area of Vail, eliminating single-serve plastics at all bars and food trucks serving at the event, reusing signage from previous years, and certifying all paints, chalk, and other materials used by artists at the event to ensure they are sustainable and free of potential hazards such as lead.
These efforts are crucial in the holistic commitment to a sustainable week.
As the GoPro Mountain Games have continued to grow year-over-year, so has our commitment to sustainability and our drive to be a leader in how events can minimize their impact on the environment. We are proud of our efforts in 2024 to serve as a pillar of event sustainability.
