Killington green rating – Ski Club of Great Britain

Killington: 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

World’s Largest Snowmaking System Spends More To Save Power

Killington Resort in Vermont’s snowmaking system is the largest in the world and consumes more power than all the resort’s other operations combined. Over the past three years, more than $5 million have been poured into snowmaking improvements to increase the efficiency of the overall system and to eliminate energy waste of both compressed air and water.

In partnership with Efficiency Vermont, the resort is nearing completion of a seven-year program to replace older diesel-powered snowmaking compressors with new state of the art “Tier lll” low emissions machines. This upgrade will reduce total emissions by 50% or 100 tons of green house gas by 2008.

The addition of tower and ground mounted low energy snow gun technology has complemented power generation plant upgrades, further reducing Killington’s energy consumption. Low Energy guns produce the same amount of snow as conventional guns while utilizing up to 75 percent less energy.

Over the past three years, Killington has boosted its low energy arsenal to 20% of the resorts 1,435 total snow guns. Low energy snow gun nozzles are configured to use the same amount of water as conventional guns with substantially less compressed air. The advantages of the low energy allow Killington to maximize their snow production capability after an adverse weather event while at the same time greatly reducing their energy for air compression during normal snowmaking operations.

In addition, the increased efficiency of tower-mount technology allows more rapid resurface capability with not only reduced air consumption and less energy, but manpower, which means fewer gas-powered snowmobiles on the mountain.

Water Conservation Measures

The source of snowmaking water has been supplemented by the use of the Woodward Reservoir. This conservation measure has preserved the historical water flows in local streams to insure protection for aquatic species. At the same time the snowmaking water supply can now support future growth without impacts to natural resources. In addition, the cold water pulled from the depths of Woodward Reservoir increases the efficiency of the snowmaking process further reducing the need for energy to cool the water at the Resort prior to pumping the water through the snowmaking system.

Additional water conservation measures have been achieved through an innovative design to use recycled waste water systems throughout restroom facilities at our six base lodges, which saves up to 30,000 gallons of fresh water a day during peak usage and will be expanded in the future.

Support of the Regional Transit Provider

Killington Resort is the largest private contributor to “The Bus” - The Marble Valley Regional Transportation District. The Killington Region Transit Expansion Plan was a proactive response to the Village Master Plan proposed in 1998 to reduce traffic impacts to the region. Current ridership for the region exceeds 800,000 one way trips, with resort related trips exceeding 375,000, of which 75,000 are commuter and employee related - and which continues to increase each year.

The combined efforts of the state, the resort and regional business supports the nearly $1 million operating budget. The objective is to reduce the dependence on the automobile, drastically reducing emissions in the region and to create a pedestrian friendly village that is contiguous to the surrounding community.

Green Mountain College Partnership

Green Mountain College provides resort industry career training, educational outreach and consultants to develop operating strategies to manage overall energy consumption.

Killington Resort contributes to these programs by providing hands-on classroom experience, instructors and internships for students.

Recycling Efforts

o Within maintenance operations
§ All anti-freeze (350 gallons per year)
§ Waste Oil for energy recovery (5,000 gallons per year)
§ Laundered Rag recycle for shop use
§ Battery and tire recycling
§ Nearly exclusive use of latex paint to reduce hazardous wastes
§ Use of sorbents and wringer to recover waste oil
§ Use of recycled parts washer to eliminate spent solvents
§ White paper and cardboard recycling
§ Gas water recycling
§ Use of air vacuum to recover waste oil
§ Mercury bulb waste stream reduction
§ 60-percent of all refundable bottles and cans
§ 100-percent of all Fryolator Oil used in base lodges
§ Approximately 3000 pounds of bar mops

Alternative Energy Sources and Conservation Measures

We continue to research alternative energy sources for participation in the future development of: wind energy, cow power (methane gas production) through Central Vermont Public Service, wood chip power generation and natural and cryogenic gas plants.

We continue to work with energy conservation consultants to find new ways to economize and reduce energy consumption, including kitchen equipment, motor controllers and rebuilds, cooler economizers, lighting upgrades and green building design.

Additional goals built into the Killington Resort conservation program:

o Expand the resort’s recycling and solid waste reduction program
o Pursue energy conservation measures through Demand Side Management
o Keep abreast of energy reduction and efficiency opportunities

Energy-efficient Guidelines
A set of energy-efficiency guidelines are applied to all new construction at Killington. The guidelines set minimum energy efficiency standards for building, construction, and operation that will reduce the building’s overall energy consumption. To support these guidelines, Killington is an Energy Star Buildings Partner.

The resort is upgrading to Low Energy Snowguns and working on an environmental policy and the use of alternative fuels, i.e. bio fuels.

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

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Killington