The way that ski areas purchase the ‘stuff’ they need to operate can be a powerful tool for encouraging and supporting locally produced sustainable goods and services while reducing wasteful byproducts. Mt. Ashland’s management team is going through process of cataloguing all of their purchasing needs and categorizing each item as disposable, recyclable, refillable, or compostable. The ski area’s recycling program now averages a 30% diversion rate from the landfill and they hope to increase this rate to 40% by 2020 through revised purchasing practices that favor recyclable, refillable, and compostable items. One of their first supply chain initiatives tackled plastic water bottles. Mt. Ashland encourages guests to drink their own mountain spring water taken directly from the source instead of purchasing single-use plastic water bottles by offering refilling stations and branded refillable bottles for those who haven’t made the switch yet. Started in the winter of 2015/16, this initiative has removed the need for 21,326 plastic water bottles so far.