What Park City Mountain Resort Is Doing

Park City Mountain Resort understands the importance of a sustainable environment and has become an environmental leader in the community. This was accomplished through the Resort’s initiatives to decrease its environmental impact and slow the process of global climate changes. These environmental initiatives are focused in several areas: climate and environment protection, renewable energy purchasing, energy reduction and outreach and education.

NEW - Park City Mountain Resort is offsetting 100% of power used from renewable energy sources - read the press release here.

View our Park City Mountain Resort Green Initiative Summary (PDF), compiled by our "Green Team" of employee volunteers.

Climate Protection and Renewable Energy Purchasing:
For each of the past three years the Resort has completed an in depth energy audit on its entire operation to determine where and how it can save energy.   The results of these audits established our “carbon footprint” and made it clear where we can reduce our energy consumption and reduce our carbon footprint.  In the past three years we have reduced our carbon footprint by over 15,000 tons.  This is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of 2,492 passenger vehicles or the electricity use of 1,802 homes for one year.  

The Resort is able to accomplish these energy savings and carbon reductions in the following ways:

• Since 2004 the Resort has used renewable energy to power its chairlifts. For the 2008-2009 season the Resort purchased 100 percent of its power from Renewable Choice Energy.  This commitment will avoid nearly 19 million pounds of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from entering the atmosphere which is equal to not driving 22 million miles, planting 221,000 tree seedlings grown for 10 years powering 1,100 homes for a year.
  
  
• We have decreased our snowmobile fleet by 30 percent. This action alone avoids the release of 31 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually which is equivalent to not driving 66,371 miles or the carbon sequestered by 721 tree seedlings grown for 10 years.
  
  
• The Resort’s entire snowcat fleet is fueled by B20 biodiesel. This initiative avoided 598 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere for the past three ski seasons which is equivalent to not driving 1,185,600 miles annually or the carbon sequestered by 13,910 tree seedlings grown for 10 years.
  
  
• The Resort printed mountain guides on recycled paper and decreased the use of paper products in its lodges by using washable dishes.
  
  
• Beginning in the 2005-2006 season the Resort began purchasing more efficient snowmaking equipment. The Resort now has a total of 26 energy efficient fan guns. The Resort has also retrofitted all of the nozzles and chambers on its ground snowmaking guns and installed variable frequency drives at all snowmaking facilities. These three initiatives avoid the release of 1,904 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere which is equivalent to not driving 3.74 million miles or enough power to supply 229 households for a year.
  

• The Resort is investigating potential sites to place wind turbines and solar arrays for power generation.
  
  
• The Resort is also looking to retrofit the lighting used for night skiing on PayDay run with more energy efficient lighting.
  
  
• The Resort continues to upgrade HVAC and lighting in all facilities. These projects have estimated and commissioned power savings of approximately 880,000 kWh. This avoids the release of 890 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere which is equivalent to the emissions from 91,645 gallons of gasoline consumed.
  
  
• The Resort completed an Environmental Footprint Baseline Analysis. The purpose of this “Ecological Footprint” analysis is to provide management with an overview of the organization’s current level of environmental impact and identify opportunities to increase the overall eco-efficiency of the Resorts operation. We knew the largest component of our Ecological Footprint was energy. What was most interesting is that the secondary components were food materials, primarily beef and cheese.