Yellowstone National Park is a national and international treasure. Though it is a park, it’s had some major “greening” up to do. Thanks in large part to Jim Evanoff, Yellowstone’s Environmental Manager, this national park is leading the way on major green initiatives, and setting the bar higher and higher for innovative approaches to sustainability.

Recently Evanoff visited Pittsburgh to give a presentation on the history of the park and the many environmental projects they’ve undertaken, thanks to sponsorship by southwestern Pennsylvania-based Concurrent Technologies and Steel City Biofuels, together with support from PennFuture and other area organizations and businesses including REI and the East End Brewing Company. PennFuture’s Heather Sage was there to capture the presentation.

Evanoff described the endless ways that Yellowstone is minimizing its impacts within its own boundaries, and going beyond its vast expanse to develop partnerships throughout the region and the country to improve the environment. They have created a major commitment to using alternative, renewable fuels in nearly all of their transportation operations; they are diverting more than 65 percent of their solid waste into recycling and reuse operations (and are striving to get to 95 percent); and they have completely overhauled their custodial services so that fewer than a dozen cleaning products are now in use, and all are non-toxic and environmentally-friendly. Yellowstone was among the first in the nation to build a LEED-certified building. They initiated the reintroduction of the federally endangered gray wolf. They’ve even turned a contentious problem with polluting snowmobiles into an opportunity for colleges, universities, and manufacturers to compete to develop “green” snowmobiles– and the competition has been fierce.

While a trip to Yellowstone is surely something we all hope to experience, a small sampling of the best the park has to offer, from a sustainability point of view, can be heard in this podcast.

For more information on innovations on environmental issues in Pennsylvania, visit our Web site. We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions on our podcasts. Leave a comment below, or e-mail us at podcast (at) pennfuture (dot) org.