FIRST
TRACKS
Smugglers’ Notch has calculated the personal carbon footprint
of each of its skiers, taking into account everything from the
skier’s commute to the power used in operating chairlifts and
snowmaking. The total effect: a Smuggs skier puts out 29 pounds
of carbon emissions per day. That means that a Smuggs skier who
logs 100 days a year has a carbon footprint of 1½ tons. To put that
into perspective, the average American car generates six tons of
CO2 pollution annually, while a round trip coast-to-coast airline
trip puts out two tons of carbon per passenger.
ski season, Mad River skiers “not only offset 100 percent of their
commuting impact, they offset the entire ski area operation,” says
Friedman. The extra money was used to purchase carbon offsets
from NativeEnergy, which in turn helped Vermont farms convert
methane to electricity.
Carbon offsets are only a start for Vermont areas. “It’s one thing
to mitigate and buy carbon offsets and recycle, but to not use
the resources in the first place is the most important thing
for us,” says Eric Friedman, marketing director of Mad River
Glen. “In terms of base area development and snowmaking, our
overall footprint on the mountain is minimal and hasn’t changed
drastically since the ski area began in the 1940s.”
Smugglers’ Notch has also gone beyond offsetting. Among the
ways the ski area has reduced its carbon output is building high
efficiency five-star energy rated homes, using electric cars to
shuttle people around the resort, installing solar water heaters on a
new building, using biodiesel to run its machines, and instituting
a no-idling policy for resort vehicles.
The resort calculates that it kept 680 tons in CO2 emissions from
reaching the atmosphere in 2006-07 from these initiatives. Its
efforts earned it the Environmental Excellence in Environmental
Stewardship and Resource Protection Award from Vermont Gov.
Jim Douglas in 2008.
Mad River Glen is taking particular aim at the biggest CO2
producer in ski country: cars. NativeEnergy did a carbon profile of
Mad River that revealed that skiers driving to the mountain were
responsible for five times more greenhouse gas emissions than the
operations of the ski area itself. So Mad River Glen, renowned for
challenging its skiers, threw down a different kind of challenge
to its devotees: ski green. By voluntarily paying $1 more on a day
ticket or adding $10 to their season pass fee in the 2007-2008
Like Mad River, Smuggs has also taken aim at reducing the
impact of car travel. It runs a shuttle bus from the Burlington
area to the mountain, and supports NuRide, a national online
carpooling initiative.
“Global warming is an issue for the whole ski industry,” says
Smuggs Vice President Mark Delaney. “We feel we need to do
what we can to preserve and protect the environment that we rely
on for our business and for our personal recreational enjoyment.
We think it’s important to our customers – that they would rather
support a company that is environmentally responsible.”
By acknowledging and addressing their effects on climate
change, Vermont ski areas have been raising awareness. “The
biggest thing that ski areas can do is to get everybody involved
in solving this problem,” says Billy Connelly of NativeEnergy.
“We didn’t get into this crisis individually, but we need to solve
this together. A skier can only do so much to solve the climate
crisis. But imagine all people taking responsibility to solve this
problem, and you can move mountains.”
— David Goodman
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