SIA The Intelligent Partner - Fall 2007 - (Page 18)

| E N V I R O N ME NT – S USTA I N A BI LI TY | BY JO N RUCKER | 287 Goodyear Blimps and the Bottom Line Positive impacts can be made through minimal changes his article is the ﬁrst in a series, introducing practical solutions that will save your business money. For starters, it won’t take much more than a half-hour, a few bucks for parts and in some cases an electrician. The other great thing is you could prevent 14,289 pounds of CO2 from heating the atmosphere. You do make a living off snow, right? I know this ex-hippie turned ski-shop owner. He’s pretty crunchy and he’s very smart. When I told him I was writing this article, he said “Yeah, the environment. . .good luck! No business is gonna do a thing about it, unless it earns them more bread. Dig?” I put it another way: Being green works best when it earns you more greenbacks. Corporate proﬁts and environmental responsibility are directly related – with the inevitable point of diminishing returns – and are in no way mutually exclusive. Intelligent environmental policies and actions are vital to the future of the snowsports industry, but equally important is smart business with increased proﬁts. Translation: By investing in energy efﬁciency and other environmentally positive strategies, your proﬁts will T increase and you will take an active role in sustaining cold winters for the industry. Mother Nature pays our bills. Unless you have your head buried deep in the hotter-than-ever sand, you’ve heard that she’s a little steamed right now, and that’s not cool. We in the snow-sports business remember winters good and bad, and can name them faster than Al Roker and an army of NOAA scientists – Vail 1992 was Sick! It’s a shame the bad ones now outnumber the good ones. We are ofﬁcially out of balance. We know this, and I for one have had enough of passively lamenting the doom and gloom. We can do something positive, make a change for the colder and increase our proﬁtability at the same time. Here, you will ﬁnd a basic list of nearly too-easy-to-believethis-could-be-doing-any-good action items that will immediately save you money and help the environment. You should incorporate these things in your business today. You can’t count on your colleagues to start. You need to do it. I need to do it. And so do the proverbial “they.” As the saying goes, we are all in this together. Stop wasting money and do this right now! ❄ LIGHT BULBS Remove this: Install this: Difﬁculty How much does this item cost? How long does this take to install? Additional ﬁrst-year proﬁt from installing this: ROI: Notes: Incandescent light bulb (just one of them) Compact ﬂuorescent light bulb (CFL) l $2 to $12 each Less than 1 minute $25.49 425% How many snow-sports people does it take to screw in a light bulb? One. You. What are you waiting for? Changing light bulbs is the easiest thing you can do to increase your proﬁts fast. THERMOSTATS Remove this: Install this: Difﬁculty How much does this item cost? How long does this take to install? Additional ﬁrst-year proﬁt from installing this: ROI: Notes: Traditional thermostat Programmable thermostat n $40 to $200 each 15 minutes $613 1226%, given 15 percent savings with a $50 thermostat and $350 monthly HVAC bill Available for most units at any home center. If you have questions about model selection or installation, consult with your HVAC contractor. 18 | S I A | T . I . P . | FA L L 2 0 0 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of SIA The Intelligent Partner - Fall 2007

SIA The Intelligent Partner - Fall 2007 Contents Word off the Slopes Welcome Best of the Best 287 Goodyear Blimps and the Bottom Line Faces in the Crowd On the Money SIA Products and Services Index to Advertisers Advertisers.com

SIA The Intelligent Partner - Fall 2007

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