There's a good chance that snowboarder flying down the hill has an environmental conscience tucked under her toque. Numerous studies indicate that skiers and riders have a stronger-than-average interest in the environment and a greater desire to protect it.
This puts the ski resort industry in an awkward position: While many of their customers are keen to see the environment protected, resorts -- in order to give these winter sports lovers what they want -- need to cut down trees, power huge ski lifts and, thanks in part to a warming climate, use a lot of electricity to make snow.
Or do they? A group of progressive, green-thinking resorts are questioning standard practices and insisting that there are better, more eco-friendly ways of running the snow business.
B.C.'s Whistler-Blackcomb is noted for its environmental practices, winning the Golden Eagle Award for Environmental Excellence in 2003 and 2005. The award examines resorts in North America through the National Ski Areas Association and assesses their environmental commitment. Still, Arthur De Jong, the resort's mountain planning and environmental resources manager, is loathe to bask in the accolades, saying only that Whistler-Blackcomb "is trying."
The resort's initiatives include such things as producing renewable energy by diverting river water to run a turbine, finding less destructive ways to build trails, lifts and roads, and protecting black bear and black-tailed deer habitats. Though De Jong says he believes environmental stewardship is the moral imperative, he adds that "taking care of the environment is profitable for us . . . We make our living on the land."
According to De Jong, Whistler-Blackcomb received its environmental wake-up call in 1992. Aspen Skiing Company followed closely behind. The Colorado-based resort company, which operates Aspen, Snowmass, Buttermilk and Highlands mountains, is led by Pat O'Donnell, former CEO of the Patagonia clothing company and a lifelong mountaineer. O'Donnell brought with him an environmental mandate when he assumed ASC's top post in 1996, hiring Auden Schendler to head up an environmental affairs department. The two were convinced that climate change would change -- perhaps destroy -- the ski industry. Schendler points to such ASC initiatives as building a LEED-certified clubhouse (the LEED program is a third-party certification system established by the U.S. Green Building Council) and using spring runoff to generate power that gets sold to a local utility. The company uses bio-diesel fuel in its grooming vehicles and has built condominiums that are heated and cooled using the relative heat of a nearby pond.
This has earned Aspen many accolades, including recognition from the Ski Area Citizens' Coalition (SACC), a group working to ensure that ski area management decisions take the environment into account. The group, which each year grades 77 resorts throughout the western U.S., recently rated Aspen No. 1.
Many other resorts have been greening up their acts. Banff National Park's Mount Norquay, Lake Louise and Sunshine Village are the only ski resorts in North America within a World Heritage Site, which puts them under stringent environmental guidelines to protect and preserve the areas they occupy. New resort buildings, for example, must feature environmentally friendly practices and materials. "We also recycle our old lifts, selling them to smaller ski hills whenever possible," says Chris Chevalier, mountain manager for Sunshine. "We even sent our old gondola to Iran for use as a sightseeing lift."
Smuggler's Notch in Vermont will be running the village's diesel equipment on 20 per cent vegetable oil. Moonlight Basin in Montana has committed to protecting up to 85 per cent of its original 10,117 hectares in a natural state. More resorts are relying on wind power, biodiesel and other environmentally friendly energy sources.
Still, many hills are simply greening the surface as a public relations ploy. Groups such as SACC argue that the industry as a whole isn't doing enough. Colorado's Breckenridge Ski Resort, for example, scored some points with SACC for purchasing wind power and recycling more than 454 tonnes of solid waste, but it wasn't enough to make up for its ecologically unfriendly expansion plans and its opposition to environmental policies. It received an "F" grade from SACC.
De Jong says the industry still has a long way to go, but is hopeful about what he sees as a partnership among resorts. He says the industry as a whole is growing in its environmental focus. "If we violate that," he says, "we only put the bullet in our own chest."
For more information on sustainable slopes initiatives, visit keepwintercool.org, skiareacitizens.com and http://www.nsaa.org.
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