How Glacier National Park’s Green Team Is Cutting Emissions and Waste

Visitors' vehicles account for 83 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions Glacier National Park counted in a 2021 inventory. The park's Green Team, founded in 2004, set two goals for 2023: cut those emissions and fix a recycling system whose loads often end up in a landfill.

Photo: NPS/Daniel Lombardi. Solar panels on the roof of the park's headquarters building.

The National Park Service has pledged to preserve park resources unimpaired for current and future generations by reducing its environmental impact through sustainable operations, design, decisions and management. Glacier's earlier steps include green energy such as solar panels and retrofitting historic buildings with modern, energy-saving utility systems.

Goal 1: reduce greenhouse gas emissions

An executive order, EO 14057, requires federal institutions such as national parks to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The park's 2021 greenhouse gas inventory found it produced over 22,000 metric tons of carbon emissions.

Chart from the National Park Service: the distribution of emission sources within Glacier National Park boundaries.

Part of the total came from park operations and from concessioners (hotels and restaurants), but 83 percent was attributed to visitor vehicle use.

The Green Team's responses:

• Charging. It installed a free-to-use electric vehicle charger at the St. Mary Visitor Center, donated by the Glacier National Park Conservancy, which also pays the charging costs during the pilot. A second charger was planned for Apgar Visitor Center. The aim is to close gaps between charging stations in rural Montana and encourage emission-free road trips.
• No idling. A campaign asks visitors to "Turn the key, be idle free" in high-traffic places such as parking lots and roadside construction.
• Fleet. The park plans to convert its vehicle fleet to electric, light-duty vehicles first and heavy-duty ones as technology and supply allow, and hopes to fund electric versions of the free shuttles on the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Photo: NPS/Clarine Phipps. The donated electric vehicle charger at the St. Mary Visitor Center parking lot.

Goal 2: improve recycling

The park has offered plastic, aluminum and glass recycling to visitors for many years, but contamination condemns many loads to the landfill. The Continental Divide splits the park, so resources and facilities are split too. In August, external contractors funded by the National Park Foundation audited solid waste at Apgar, Avalanche, St. Mary and Many Glacier, studying visitor behavior, interviewing staff and examining bins. The bins they checked were frequently contaminated beyond the point where nonrecyclables could safely be removed.

Photo: NPS/Clarine Phipps. Recycling bins in the park.

The fix, the park says, is simple and fairly cheap: new bin signs and visitor materials, and, starting at one pilot location in 2024, Consolidated Collection Areas that put trash and recycling bins side by side. The park also offers seasonal glass recycling to visitors and staff. In 2022 it began seasonal composting for staff around Lake McDonald and expects to extend it to East Side staff because it proved popular.

Results for May to October 2023

• About 6,300 pounds of glass recycled.
• Nearly 1,200 pounds of food waste composted.

The team expects these steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep recyclables out of the landfill over time.

Sources

• National Park Service, Glacier National Park, Glacier's Green Team Gains, an article on the park's 2023 work; a comparison of emissions to household energy use that looked wrong, and one photograph of a ranger, left out; rewritten in hubnx's own words.