Copper Mountain green rating – Ski Club of Great Britain

Copper Mountain: green factor

ISO14001 approved:No

Is the resort ISO14001 approved?

ISO 14001 is a worldwide standard of environmental management for any organisation, created in 1996. Ski resorts on at least four continents are known to be working towards obtaining ISO 14001 certification or to have already achieved it. ISO 14001 is an environmental management system applying to those environmental issues which a ski resort business, or any company, has some control over and can be expected to influence if they want to.

The ISO 14001 standard helps any organisation to implement, maintain and improve an environmental management system; assure itself of its conformance with its own stated environmental policy and to demonstrate that it is conforming with those standards and any other environmental laws and regulations.

Recycling:Yes

Does the resort recycle?

Resorts increasingly offer recycling facilities to guests, either within their accommodation and/or at special recycling points, which are hopefully convenient.

As always there's a range of how far individual resorts go. Some go as far as looking to use waste to run their communal heating systems and others make targets to recycle 100% of all waste.

Green power user:Yes

Is the resort a green power user?

'Green' power (eco-friendly) typically means wind generated or other naturally produced energy such as solar cells. On the other hand, some fuel sources like bio diesel are less polluting than conventional fuels so could be considered a step in the right direction, if not the perfect answer.

Of course there is a great variation in how much (or how little!) a resort can do, from running a few snowmobiles on bio-diesel to having the entire resort operating on wind power or other renewable energies.

Traffic reduction:Yes

Does the resort have a traffic reduction policy?

Traffic reduction can take many forms. Several Swiss resorts and a few in other countries have banned cars altogether for decades. Some have never had cars on their streets.

Other approaches include pedestrianised centres and out-of-centre car parking with resort centre access only on foot or by public transport - hopefully, electrically powered buses. These, along with expensive and/or severely restricted resort centre parking, and an efficient free and cheap bus service, all help to reduce traffic problems and thus cut emissions.

Sewage properly managed:Yes

Does the resort have a waste reduction policy?

The influx of winter guests to ski areas tends to bring an influx of, what's politely termed 'waste water', to the mountains as thousands of guests use the toilets on the mountain and bathroom in their accommodation.

The most environmentally forward thinking ski areas are using techniques such as composting to reduce waste from mountain restaurants. In some areas purified wastewater is also being used for snowmaking, on the one hand an eco friendly measure as it recycles, on the other it might be argued that if water is needed for snowmaking in an area of marginal precipitation, their shouldn't be a ski area there.

Climate policy:Yes

Does the resort have a climate policy?

If a ski resort has a climate policy it means that the 'great and the good' in the resort have got together to work out a strategy to minimise the resort's impact on climate change and global warming. This can include many different initiatives such as recycling, communal heating, ensuring new buildings cause minimal environmental impact and so on. Most important is the ethos of the community to take the potential environmental impact of all resort aspects of life into consideration now and in the future.

Green building policy:Yes

Does the resort have a green building policy?

Ski resorts are increasingly looking at minimising the environmental impact of their construction projects, as well as the impact of newly erected buildings and other infrastructure.

Having a green building policy means resorts put environmental concerns at the top of the list when working on new projects. This can include a myriad of things from using helicopters to reduce the damage to surrounding land when building in sensitive areas, to using natural, local materials for building and looking for maximum insulation and minimum power requirements, ideally supplied in as eco-friendly a way as possible.

Major Initiatives

Copper recognizes that sustaining their environment is critical to the future success of our business and to future generations. As such, Copper strives to be stewards of the mountain and village environments.

100% Green Power Buyer

Copper pays for an equivalent amount of green electricity to the conventional electricity it consumes to be supplied to the US electricity distribution network.

Copper Mountain supports state and federal legislation to reduce carbon emissions. Copper supports the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization’s Colorado Climate Project and Governor Ritter’s climate action plan to reduce energy and fuel consumption. On a national level, Copper supports the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which is endorsed by the National Ski Area Association and the National Resources Defense Council.

Traffic Reduction

Copper supports carpooling within Colorado through promoting and linking to skicarpool.com

Copper operates three Cobus 3000s, which are environmentally-friendly buses that are nearly 60% more efficient than our other buses. Copper has also reduced its snowmobile fuel consumption by 40% in the past two years. Additionally, Copper is switching its snowmobile fleet to four-strokes over the next several years, and 14 of 44 snowmobiles are currently four-strokes.

Fuel-Efficiency

Four four-stroke snowmobiles were purchased in 2005 – these are more fuel efficient, less noise. Smokeless oil has been purchased for all of 45 snowmobiles used by the resort, reducing emissions.

In 2004 there was a lighting retrofit of efficient fluorescent lamps at buildings including the Edge, Copper Station, Copper Conference Center, the Athletic Club, Union Creek, Solitude. These buildings include all major buildings that Copper owns and operates, including all large day lodge facilities. Over 5000 lamps have been replaced.

Copper has also initiated an energy conservation program in the Edge, a building which houses more than 400 employees each winter. The program focuses on educating employees on ways they can conserve energy everyday.

Chairlift Energy Savings

The lift maintenance team installed a centralized control system to efficiently monitor and control the lift engine room heat. This project began in the 2004/05 season and is still being expanded. Lift engines must be heated on cold days prior to lift start-up to run properly and efficiently. Before this central control, heat had to run all night long in the engine rooms. Current lifts on the system include the Super Bee, American Eagle, American Flyer, Timberline Express. More lifts will be added. Electricity savings are 3000 Kilowatt hrs/day, enough energy to power three houses for a month. It also means 400,000 lbs. less CO2 emissions each season.

Recycling

Copper recycles aluminum, steel, tin, plastic, glass, office paper, newspaper and cardboard. 239 tons of traditional recyclables were recyled in 2005, resulting in an 18% landfill diversion rate. 30 tons of scrap metal were recycled in 2005. 4200 gallons of oil were recycled in 2005. 600 gallons of antifreeze were recycled in 2005.

There’s recycling at all Copper-owned restaurants and food courts, plus Copper offices. Since the 05/06 SEASON: more recycling in village restaurants, expanded recycling in base areas, increased office recycling.

Several independent businesses and a guest program in The Cirque have been added to the program. Copper also purchases 30% post-consumer recycled paper for all of its offices.

Climate Protection

Copper Mountain supports federal and state legislation to reduce climate change.

Employee Fund

Copper has created an employee environmental fund. Voluntary contributions from employees will be matched by Copper and the money will be granted to local non-profit or tax-exempt groups conducting youth-focused community environmental projects.

Local Forest Conservation

Local forest conservation plays a large role in Copper’s Environmental Program. Copper will continue to raise funds through the Ski Area Contribution Program, support local conservation groups including Friends of the Dillon Ranger District and maintain the local Wheeler Lakes Trail through the Adopt-a-Trail program. The Ski Area Contribution Program granted more than $75,000 since its inception in November 2006

Education and Awareness

Copper believes that raising awareness and helping to educate employees and guests about resort-based environmental programs will help to positively influence action to protect the environment.

Jen Schenk, Copper Environmental Manager, participated in the forum on Climate Change hosted by Our Future Summit on Nov. 8, 2007

Since resorts are continuously increasing and improving their environmental practices, we update the Green Resort Guide throughout the year. If you have any information about new resort environmental policies/practices or anything that you think we may have missed, please email greenresortguide@skiclub.co.uk.

Beginners	Off piste	Families	Ski to door	Large ski area
Intermediates	Mountain restaurants	Non-skiers	Glacier	Modern lift system
Advanced	Luxury accommodation	Value for money	Cross country	No queues
Skiing for all standards	Eating out	Purpose-built convenience	Heliskiing
Moguls	Apres-ski	Snow-sure resorts	Picturesque
Snowboarding	Ski-and-shop	Romantic/charming	Traffic-free

Quick Search

Advanced Search use any combination to find matching resorts

Copper Mountain