Ski areas go green

This isn't really a practical tip for immediate use, but it's good news, anyway:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Resorts Nationwide Energize Green Power Program
List of Ski Areas Offsetting Energy Use Continues to Grow.

LAKEWOOD, Colo.– October 27, 2006 – Alpine Meadows, Calif., Grand Targhee, Wyo., and Middlebury College Snow Bowl, Vt., recently joined 16 other ski areas that are offsetting 100 percent of their energy use by purchasing renewable energy. The list of 19 resorts includes: California’s Alpine Meadows and Sugar Bowl, Colorado’s Aspen Highlands, Aspen Mountain, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Buttermilk, Crested Butte, Keystone, Snowmass, Vail Mountain and Wolf Creek as well as Maine’s Shawnee Peak, Mount Sunapee, N.H., Heavenly, Nev., Mt. Ashland, Ore., Vermont’s Okemo Mountain Resort and Middlebury College Snow Bowl and Grand Targhee, Wyo.

All tolled, these 19 resorts are purchasing 258,574,498 kWh of green energy and their purchases result in the avoidance of 309,383,234 pounds of CO2. This is the equivalent of planting nearly 12 million trees or avoiding more than 120,000 round-trip flights between New York and San Francisco.

NSAA launched its Green Power Program in September as part of the industry’s Keep Winter Cool program (www.keepwintercool.org) to combat global warming. Green power is generated from renewable and nonpolluting energy sources including wind power, geothermal power, small scale hydro-power, solar power or bio-mass power. To date, 47 resorts in 14 states are buying renewable energy for their operations. In addition, NSAA, the National Ski Patrol (NSP), the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) and the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI) are also offsetting 100 percent of their electricity use, as is NSAA supplier member BEWI Productions Inc., Waltham, Mass., producer of consumer ski shows. For more information visit The Green Room in the Environment section of nsaa.org.

Comments

[Patrick Thorne]

For info on what ski resorts around the world are doing to minimise environmental impact and which are using renewable energy, see www.saveoursnow.com.