ASPEN IS GREEN ALL YEAR ROUND

Aspen LEED's the Change in Enviro-Friendly Resorts and Creates a Global Platform for Environmental Awareness

ASPEN, Colo. (Spring/Summer 2008) — Aspen’s recreational assets are well known. Less known are the serious environmental organizations that call Aspen home. Led by the City of Aspen, each of these groups work constantly and creatively to preserve the natural splendor here and elsewhere.

Tom Cardamone, executive director of the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES), says, “There is a responsibility for Aspen residents to be effective environmental stewards. The community supports strong initiatives to protect open space, wildlife, air and water quality, and traditional agriculture.”

City of Aspen
“Aspen is one of the more aggressive cities addressing the climate impact issue,” says Dan Richardson, Global Warming Project Manager for the City of Aspen. “The city has demonstrated great courage and creativity when it comes to implementing programs to address our impacts on global warming.”

The City of Aspen has an aggressive goal when it comes to global warming – a 30 percent reduction in green house gas emissions citywide by 2020, and an 80 percent reduction by 2050. To do this, it has taken dramatic steps towards reducing its carbon footprint. Currently the City of Aspen gets 75 percent of its electricity from renewable sources to reduce air pollution and global warming, and the goal is to add even more.

The Aspen Renewable Energy Mitigation Program, passed in 2000, has funded more than 24 efficiency and renewable energy projects that will keep more than 42 million pounds of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere in the next 10 years. They have also raised more than $2.5 million for local energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

Other programs include free parking in the City of Aspen for hybrid vehicles and the Car Share program, which offers city-owned vehicles for use by local residents who opt not to have their own cars. In 2005, the City of Aspen called for the formation of The Aspen Global Warming Alliance which consists of local organizations dedicated to taking serious steps needed to protect Aspen’s unique, fragile climate. The plan has been nicknamed The Canary Initiative in reference to the old practice of miners carrying a caged canary into the mines  (www.aspenpitkin.com).

The Canary Initiative
Aspen is a microcosm for global warming as climate changes are particularly apparent with closely monitored skiing and rafting seasons. Conversely, Aspen sets an example with environmental practices that are exported by influential people who visit town frequently.

In March 2005, Aspen Mayor Helen Klanderud launched the Canary Initiative, an ambitious local response to global warming. The initiative calls for local reduction of greenhouse gases, a continued commitment to renewable energy sources, and the education of political leaders and the public. The City of Aspen commissioned a local climate impact assessment to project the city’s future climate and the economic impact of those changes. Presently, the Aspen City Council is holding focus meetings to solidify an action plan written by Dan Richardson, Aspen’s global warming project manager.
 
The Rocky Mountain Institute
This enclave in Old Snowmass is an entrepreneurial non-profit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of natural, human and other capital to make the world more secure, just, prosperous and life-sustaining. They do this by inspiring business, civil society, and government to design integrative solutions that create true wealth.  Concentrating on areas such as energy, transportation, water issues, and climate change, the Institute has been internationally recognized for the global promise and impact of its strategic plans, educational programs and the dynamic ideas it offers to corporations, governments, communities and citizens. The Institute also influences national and international policy, with its representatives regularly addressing Congress and international governing bodies (www.rmi.org; 970.927.3851).

Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES): is an environmental education center in the Hallam Lake Nature Preserve—just a few blocks from the town center. It offers year-round classes and outreach programs for children and adults such as slide shows, demonstrations with eagles, hawks, and owls, and children’s camps and classes. Programs include guided nature walks atop Aspen and at the Maroon Bells in addition to summer and fall nature tours of the historic mining town of Ashcroft. ACES also conducts land stewardship projects at several locations around Aspen, working to minimize the effects of human use and preserve the wildlife habitats’ fragile, natural ecosystems that surround the town. ACES has two new educational centers–Rock Bottom Ranch in Emma and Toklat (www.aspennature.org; 970.925.5756).

The Aspen Valley Land Trust is a non-profit organization that works to buy and preserve parcels of land in the Roaring Fork Valley, permanently protecting open spaces from development. Colorado’s oldest and largest land trust, it conserves land at 3.7 times the national average (www.avlt.org; 970.963.8440).

Wilderness Workshop; The Wilderness Workshop’s mission is to protect and conserve the wilderness and natural resources of the Roaring Fork Watershed, the White River National Forest and adjacent public lands. The Wilderness Workshop is a non-profit organization that engages in research, education, legal advocacy and grassroots coordinating to protect the ecological integrity of local landscapes and public lands. The Workshop focuses on monitoring and conserving air and water quality, wildlife species and habitat, natural communities and lands of wilderness quality (www.aspenwildernessworkshop.org; 970.963.3977).

Aspen Skiing Company
The Aspen Skiing Company was the first major ski resort to purchase wind power to offset 100 percent of the energy use on Aspen’s four mountains and in company-owned restaurants and hotels. All Aspen/Snowmass snowcats run on a blend of clean, renewable Biodiesel to protect the air you breathe and the climate we depend on. Aspen/Snowmass has the only green building policy in the snowsports industry. It has resulted in projects like the Snowmass Golf Clubhouse, which is LEED Silver Level certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, is heated and cooled using the pond on the 18th hole, and is one of the most energy efficient commercial buildings in the state. Aspen Skiing Company works in many ways to protect and preserve Aspen’s pristine playground and to reduce the company’s impact on the environment.  Whether through habitat protection and enhancement, energy and water efficiency, alternative energy for lift operation, green development, waste management, recycling, or alternative transportation, the goal is to lead the skiing industry toward more sustainable practices. Aspen Skiing Company’s environmental practices have received numerous awards and recognition, including the British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Award and more Mountain Sports Media Golden Eagle Awards than any other ski resort. Aspen Skiing Company employees also established the Environment Foundation in 1998, dedicated to protecting and preserving the regional environment. Funded through a volunteer payroll deduction plan, each dollar contributed is matched by a contribution from the Aspen Community Foundation and the Aspen Skiing Company Family Fund. The foundation has leveraged more than $650,000 to 130 regional organizations and causes  (www.aspensnowmass.com/environment/programs/foundation.cfm).

For more information, visit the Aspen Chamber Resort Association at www.aspenchamber.org, or call 1.888.290.1324 or 970.925.1940.

Contact:  Maureen Poschman; maureen@promoinc.net / 970.925.8480