Park City & Deer Valley

Conservation Advocacy Group gave Park City Ski Areas Good 'Grades'

Park City Mountain Resort and Deer Valley Resort are among the nation's 10 best ski areas for their environmental policies.

That's according to the most recent "report card" from the Ski Area Citizens' Coalition (SACC). The group has surveyed ski areas for the past 10 years in order to rank them according to environmental responsibility.

This year PCMR was rated as second best in the nation behind Squaw Valley, California. Deer Valley was No. 7.

A press release from the group said the 82 resorts surveyed improved their scores by an average of two percent from last year. That makes 2010 the fourth year of improvement.

Unfortunately, that may be because resorts slowed development and expansion during the recession, it said. The gains may be reversed when the financial market becomes more conducive to building.

The coalition's website at skiareacitizens.com makes clear the group favors small, minimalist ski areas that "are in the uphill transportation business" and not resorts per se. The purpose of the report card is to encourage environmentally-conscious skiers to patronize smaller, simpler ski areas.

That's bad news for Canyons Resort that was given a C grade because of its real estate developments.

Deer Valley and PCMR earned some of their best scores ever, but Brent Giles, director of mountain operations and environmental affairs for PCMR cautioned that low scores from this group don't necessarily reflect a resort's commitment to environmental stewardship.

"You may think that someone with a B, C, or D got that because they don't care about the environment, but that's not true," he said.

The rubric weights preservation of habitat highly. So a resort may be taking action to protect its watershed and fight global warming, but if they make a new run or increase snowmaking their score will be poor, he said.

"It's important people read the whole report," he said.

For example, Canyons scored high in most areas, but was docked a large numbers of points for development, ramped-up snowmaking and not promoting public or shared transportation.

Paul Joyce, research director for the coalition, said large resorts with a lot of lodging and skier services have a big footprint on the mountain many of which are public lands. Being good stewards of the forest is more important than catering to luxury travelers, he argued.

"We want to help people be aware of the choices they make," he said. "Let's be mountain towns and ski areas and not worry about keeping up with the Joneses and real estate."

When skiers begin thinking about the environmental responsibility of their favorite ski area, they also tend to think more about their own carbon footprint and what they can do to be a better steward of the land in their own life, he said.

To "forgive" resorts for past development, the grading rubric returns 20 percent of missed points every year so the expansion or building project no longer stings the resort five years later, he explained.

Currently, the rubric does not reward Utah resorts for being so close to an international airport and thereby reducing the fuel used to transport skiers, he said.

Joyce said he believes the "grades" have helped prompt resorts to think "green" over the past decade. Many now have a staff member focused on environmental initiatives.

But realistically, he said many "green" initiatives also make good business sense and would have been implemented with or without the advocacy of groups like his.

An example of that may be PCMR's renovated lighting on Payday. Giles said the project helped them win favor with the coalition, but was done because the old system was antiquated.

"We went from using 1,500 watts per light to 150 watts," he said. "That's a savings in energy of 130,000 to 150,000 kilowatt hours."

PCMR also purchased more efficient snowmaking equipment.

"We're continually changing to more efficient ways of operating," he added.

Deer Valley Resort president Bob Wheaton said they were thrilled with their "A" grade.

"Deer Valley certainly shares the same values as the coalition in being the best stewards of the land that we possibly can be," he said. "The coalition is truly one of the most well-respected efforts with support from many other organizations worldwide."

Canyons Resort also said they support the group's effort.

"Although we are certainly disappointed in our drop in score from the Ski Area Citizens Coalition from last year, and it may not clearly represent all of our initiatives, the report card provides us a great framework for environmental responsibility for The Canyons," said Dana Edwards, mountain operations and resort sustainability manager. "SACC is a valued organization and we look forward to working with them in the future as we do with all of our non-profit partners. The Canyons staff and management are very dedicated to environmental stewardship and we will continue to work towards meeting all of the goals that we have set for ourselves and the community."

by Andrew Kirk OF THE RECORD STAFF : The Park Record

For More Information on Park City and Deer Valley Contact:
Michael Lapay
Prudential Utah Real Estate
Mobile: 435-640-5700
Toll Free: 888-410-7653

mlapay@pureparkcityrealestate.com