For many visitors to Heavenly Mountain Resort, they only experience the fun aspect of the mountain, whether that’s the intense powder days in the winter or a beautiful gondola ride in the summer. And while Heavenly does strive to continue to bring fun and adventure to visitors, it also adheres to higher standards. The resort has worked tirelessly to meet and exceed the commitments they’ve made to the community it operates in and the environment as a whole. This is the goal of the Vail Resorts EpicPromise.

Supporting resort communities, increasing access to snowsports, and being responsible environmental stewards is ingrained in the history of Vail Resorts. EpicPromise brings this work to life and is one of the ways the company supports one of their core values, “Do Good.”

“The launch of EpicPromise is just the first step as we look forward to implementing new programs and efforts in the coming months that build on our sustainability leadership,” said a 2017 press release announcing the launch of the program. “From our commitment to sustainable operations to inspiring our guests to make their own impact, we want to be a company known for taking action.”

As part of Vail Resorts, Heavenly also has a long history of environmental and community stewardship and mountain staff have fully embraced EpicPromise as a way of life at Heavenly.

Heavenly’s EpicPromise

Heavenly and Vail Resorts’ EpicPromise is their commitment to being responsible stewards of the environment, to ignite a passion for the outdoors for the next generation of skiers and riders, and to support our team members and local communities for a bright, sustainable future.

Ryan Smith, Regional Senior Manager of Building Maintenance at Heavenly and Kirkwood, is the EpicPromise Champion at Heavenly. Smith, who also serves on the Tahoe Chamber Board of Directors, sees the value in not only personally being involved in the community, but for Heavenly as a whole, to give back.

“We really want to make sure we’re proper members of our community and we’re giving back, especially in the areas that support our priorities,” said Smith. “And really that we’re supporting those agencies that make our communities better.”

Community Giving

Heavenly and Kirkwood support 46 organizations locally, including the The League to Save Lake Tahoe, Bread & Broth and the Tahoe Fund.

In 2025, the resorts donated $2.5 million back into the community, which has increased year-over-year. Organizations apply for grants each year, and a committee determines if they match Heavenly’s values.

Youth access is one of the values that’s very important to Heavenly. The mountain has partnered with Lake Tahoe Unified School District to ensure all fourth and fifth graders in the district have access to rentals, lessons and to the mountain. They’ve provided the same support to the Washoe Tribe.

“For us, it helps us to get more people introduced to the sport we all love,” said Smith. “That’s one of our key priorities, helping people get up on the mountain.”

Smith added that in 2025, Heavenly and Kirkwood supported over 2,200 youth.

Heavenly has also made a multi-year giving commitment to the Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe.

“The Boys & Girls Club is really near and dear to our heart because we recognize that not only does it support South Lake Tahoe as a whole but definitely our employees,” said Smith, adding that employees at Heavenly and Kirkwood use BGCLT.

The resort not only provides financial support but also boots on the ground support. Each winter, Heavenly hosts Ski with a Ranger events in partnership with USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. The free event helps educate the public about the mission and role of the Forest Service in ski area management, improve public understanding of natural resource processes and issues, and promote environmental literacy and stewardship.

Employees are also encouraged to give back to the community. Employees have volunteered with the Sugar Pine Foundation to plant thousands of saplings, they’ve worked with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association to help build and maintain trails, they’ve worked with the League to clean-up beaches and they’ve served hundreds of meals with Bread & Broth.

Employee Support

Additionally, Heavenly provides direct financial aid to their employees through the Vail Resorts EpicPromise Foundation.

According to the Vail Resorts website, “The Vail Resorts EpicPromise Foundation is a public charity designed to provide our team with pathways to stability and access. The foundation is funded by an annual $500,000 contribution from Vail Resorts, as well as generous donations made by Vail Resorts team members and guests.”

The foundation provides Hardship Relief Grants, Educational Ascent Grants and EpicPromise Scholars Grants.

Employees can apply for Educational Ascent Grants for a one-time scholarship used to pursue a degree or certification. EpicPromise Scholars Grants are aimed towards dependents of Vail employees for tuition expenses.

The Employee Hardship grants provide short-term aid following a critical, unexpected event addressing emergency expenses. They can be applied for by an employee, or an employee can fill out a referral for a coworker.

Smith said the foundation was able to step up in a big way during the Caldor Fire.

“During the Caldor Fire, it was able to provide financial assistance to all our employees who were forced to relocate and evacuate,” said Smith.

In addition to natural disaster relief, employees can apply for grants to support medical emergencies, rehab programs, domestic violence support or home repairs when homes are made uninhabitable.

Commitment to Zero

Supporting the environment is a main focus for Heavenly, and while they’ve provided thousands of dollars in grants to environmental organizations, they’ve also looked inward at ways they can change how they do business to be more sustainable.

In 2017, Vail Resorts made a Commitment to Zero pledge, a bold goal to reach zero net emissions, zero waste to landfill, and zero net operating impact on forests and habitats by 2030. And according to Lila Peterson, Sustainability Manager for West Regional Destinations + Australia, Heavenly is on track to reach that goal.

Net zero is a big goal to reach and 2030 is not far away. So, how does a mountain like Heavenly begin tackling that big of a project?

“Our main strategy is making partnerships, working holistically, looking for different opportunities to invest capital and trying to be as innovative as we can,” said Peterson.

For example, Heavenly has partnered with Liberty Utilities to replace snow making equipment in favor of higher efficiency. Heavenly is also piloting electric vehicles, replacing lights with LED, and upgrading heating equipment. They’ve also engaged employees in behavior change campaigns including daily energy checklists, end-of-season shutdown procedures, and IdleWise – an initiative to reduce vehicle idling.

Another area Heavenly has made a lot of progress is with waste to landfill reduction, which might not be the sexiest topic but it’s one Peterson cares deeply about.

Heavenly has focused on waste diversion through recycling and composting and reducing the amount of waste overall. That includes moving toward reusable and durable dish wear at mountain restaurants and staffing employees who are trained on diversion. Those employees sort trash behind the scenes to make sure all waste is going to the correct place.

“It takes waste out of the guests’ hands so that they can focus on having fun at the resort versus trying to figure out all of the different ways that we’re diverting waste from landfill,” said Peterson. “That’s something that makes Heavenly and all of our resorts that do this kind of waste sorting super unique because it’s not something that’s very common in the food and beverage industry, especially in quick-service locations.”

It’s not just in food and beverage locations that Heavenly is making changes. They’ve partnered with Trex, a company that specializes in recycling soft plastics, which are the materials used in shipping clothing and retail items. The company uses that material for decking and furniture. Since program adoption, participating resorts have recycled 30,000 lbs of this material across the Vail Resorts enterprise.

“We’re super excited to collect and recycle this material because it is so commonly littered,” said Peterson.

The resort has also started to move away from plastic lift passes. Guests can now use a digital mobile pass through the My Epic app. This is an opt-in program so guests with season passes from the past season can still use those hard copy passes.

“We partnered with the pass media supplier to create a program where we can collect end of life pass cards from guests and employees for recycling,” said Peterson. “We’re keeping things like those passes out of the landfill which may seem small, but it really adds up over time.”

So the next time you’re visiting Heavenly, think about the ways your dollars are being turned out and used to support South Lake Tahoe and the environment as a whole.

“Our resorts have a large influence on our surrounding communities, and it’s our responsibility to be leaders in sustainability and active stewards of the natural environment in Lake Tahoe and beyond,” said Peterson.

To learn more, visit https://www.skiheavenly.com/the-mountain/more-options/epicpromise.