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 for the 2011-2012 Winter Season, the Environmental Kiosk, located adjacent to Silverlode lift, features a working wind turbine and functioning solar panels. Open to the public, the kiosk is an interactive exhibit educating resort guests on the Resort’s commitment to environmental responsibility – all while generating an anticipated 6,000 kWh’s, annually. That’s enough energy to power the average home for five years!

In 2008 Park City Mountain Resort offset 100% of power used with renewable energy sources - read the press release. We were proud to continue our 100% offset for the 2009/2010 and again for the 2010/2011 season. We have purchased 45,548,721 kWh’s of wind power.

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 four 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. Since 2005 our energy reduction initiatives have reduced our carbon footprint by over 8,800 tons of CO2. In addition, our purchase of alternative energy (wind) during this time has reduced our carbon footprint by over 22,000 tons. These combined energy initiatives reduced our carbon footprint by 53% since 2005. Reducing our emissions by 30,800 tons of CO2 is equivalent to taking 5,117 cars of the road for one year or saving the electricity use of 3,875 homes for one year.

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

• For the second year in a row Park City Mountain Resort received the Energy Star designation from the US EPA for their Team Building and it’s outstanding performance in energy conservation and in reducing carbon emissions. The Team Building has exceeded the EPA’s Energy Star requirements by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 45% below the national average office building (adjusted for size and climate). This represents a reduction of 175 metric tons of carbon dioxide in a year, a remarkable contribution to the greening of Park City.


• Since 2004 the Resort has used renewable energy to power its chairlifts. Beginning in 2008 the Resort purchased renewable energy credits (REC’s) from Renewable Choice Energy to offset 100 percent of electricity use. This commitment kept over 58 million pounds of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from entering the atmosphere which is equal to not driving almost 60 million miles, 684,645 tree seedlings grown for 10 years or the electricity use of 2,272 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 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 retrofit 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 annually 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.
  
  
• We replaced all the lighting on Payday run in the summer of 2010. All existing 1500 watt quartz halogen lights were replaced with 150 watt metal halide lights. We estimate the reduction in power use to be about 150,000 kWh’s annually. The lighting was engineered to be consistent over the entire run which resulted in huge improvement to visibility.
  
• 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 our use of electricity. What was most interesting is that the secondary components were food materials, primarily beef and cheese.