Stowe Resort Earns Green Rating

Stowe first ski resort to earn Audubon's Green Community Award

© Mitch Kaplan

Stowe's Spruce Peak Declared Green, Stowe Mountain Resort

Spruce Peak at Stowe has earned the Audubon Green Community Award from Audubon International, making it the country' first mountain/ski resort to earn such a rating.

Sometimes it’s a bit hard to think of ski resorts—or even skiing itself—as being environmentally friendly. Can skiing and snowboarding really be "green," as the current jargon would have it?

Perhaps not, in the most stringent or literal senses After all, when we create skiing and snowboarding resorts, we cut trees, pilfer water to make snow, build buildings and parking lots and invite a whole lotta automobile traffic.

But, everything is relative, one supposes, and better to build ski playgrounds that at least show environmental sensitivity and awareness than to slap-dash make mountain sprawl.

And so, it is in that context that Stowe Mountain Resort has proudly announced that it is now the first mountain resort in the nation to earn Audubon's Green Community Award.

"Spruce Peak at Stowe, Stowe Mountain Resort's new base-area development, has earned the Audubon Green Community Award from Audubon International, a non-profit environmental organization headquartered in New York State," says the news release.

It continues, "Members of Audubon International's Sustainable Communities Program are eligible for the award, which recognizes environmental achievement and is a milestone en route to earning rigorous designation as a Certified Audubon Sustainable Community. Spruce Peak first joined the Sustainable Communities Program in early 2006, and becomes the first mountain resort in the nation to earn the Audubon Green Community Award."

Among the environmentally friendly aspects of Spruce Peak, Stowe lists:

Plus:

Yes, all these elements are commendable and point to a newly hopeful way in which to develop mountain-located vacation resorts.

But, it all begs the question, how much development is really necessary? And, the Spruce Peak project, where the homes and pricing are aimed at an elite upper class demographic, forgets altogether the question, "What about building facilities affordable to the average family?"

Hmmm...


The copyright of the article Stowe Resort Earns Green Rating in Winter Sports is owned by Mitch Kaplan. Permission to republish Stowe Resort Earns Green Rating must be granted by the author in writing.




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