From Alice@skinh.org

One of the most alluring attributes of New Hampshire ski areas is the beautiful environment in which they are located. Surrounded by beautiful mountains and lakes, it's logical that ski resorts want to be environmentally-friendly and encourage sustainable practices. Over the past several years many of New Hampshire's ski areas have begun to embrace and implement policies that will help to ensure these places are here for future generations to enjoy.

How you can help the environment during your visit to a Ski NH resort!
What ski areas are doing behind-the-scenes

As a guest at a NH ski resort, there are many ways you help ski areas protect and create a better environment for future skiers & snowboarders.

The two easiest are:
1) turning off your vehicle's engine when you're in the drop zone, and
2) recycling what's left from your snacks and meals

ANTI-IDLING INITIATIVES

One of the most effective ways for ski areas to help combat the rise in greenhouse gases is to reduce the amount of time stationary engines and vehicles idle by encouraging guests to participate in anti-idling initiatives. So turn off your engine when you're dropping off family, friends and equipment in the ski area drop zone! If you idle for more than 10 seconds, you're wasting energy - plus idling is against the law in NH!

These areas listed below use signage to help remind you to turn off your engine, and also ask drivers of group ski buses to turn off their engines and come into the base lodge for the day.

Even if your favorite ski area doesn't have signage to remind you, do it anyway ... you'll be saving money and saving the environment!

RECYCLING

It's been difficult for ski areas to launch recycling in guest cafeterias because of their mountainous, remote locations. In the past, it was not cost effective for waste management companies to come to ski areas to haul away recyclable trash, so many ski areas decided to start it on their own, and drive the separated trash to the local dump. Fortunately, with the advent of simpler recycling processes, waste management companies are beginning to work more closely with ski areas to help them reduce the significant waste that can be generated on a busy Saturday in a lodge cafeteria or restaurant.

Separate your reusable trash into recycling containers at these areas this winter ...
and keep in mind, we'll be adding more areas to this list as the winter progresses:

Loon Mountain has switched from disposable plates and silverware to washable dining plates and utensils, so please help out the effort by separating what's washable from what's not.

OTHER WAYS YOU CAN BE AN ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY GUEST

Carpool. If you've got some extra room in your car, share a ride with other friends or families that are heading to the slopes for the day or weekend. It'll save a ton of gas (& money) ... and catching up on what's been happening with friends has a way of making the trip go by a lot faster too.

If you're staying at a lodging property that offers shuttle service to the ski areas nearby, hop on in! Just think, you won't have to head out in the cold early hours of dawn to scrape off your windows, or sit in a cold car for the first five minutes of your trip.The bus will bring you right to the base lodge, so you won't have to drop off your family or friends, park the car and hike back. And at the end of the day, it'll pick you up right at the base lodge and deliver you right to your doorstep.

Better yet, check if your lodging property offers late check-out - get first tracks as well as a full day of skiing on your last day! If guests book two weeks in advance, the Golden Eagle Lodge in Waterville Valley will provide them with a 4pm check-out on Sunday. Many other hotels may be happy to accommodate this request, particularly if there are few check-ins for that night.

Turn off lights and heat when you leave your hotel room or your home to head for the slopes.

Take a bus. Waterville Valley offers daily bus service to the Trailways Station in Plymouth, NH for guests wishing to travel from Boston via bus.

Contact your elected representatives and ask them to do more to reduce carbon emissions.

Educate yourself on the dozens of no-cost and low-cost ways to save energy! Our local electric coop has a program called "Small Steps" with a great website that offers tons of ideas for reducing waste at home, at work and on the road.


In addition to the environmental programs you see, there are many behind-the-scenes programs that help ski areas operate as environmentally-efficiently as possible. The most significant is the widespread use of energy-efficient snowguns. These guns produce as much snow at warmer temperatures as older snowguns did, while using less compressed air per gun. This results in a signifiant reduction in the amount of energy necessary to create the snow. Many ski areas invested in new tower guns and fan guns this past summer, including Pats Peak, Dartmouth Skiway, Mount Sunapee, Loon Mountain, Wildcat Mountain, Granite Gorge, Crotched Mountain and Waterville Valley.

Biodiesel fuel has become a popular fuel alternative for many NH ski resorts. In 2003 Cranmore became the first ski area east of the Mississippi to run its grooming equipment and other equipment on biodiesel; now all four groomers at Cranmore operate on biodiesel. Bretton Woods, King Pine, Loon Mountain, Mount Sunapee, and Ragged Mountain Resort have all made the move to biodiesel fuel for their grooming fleets, heavy equipment and/or facility heating sources. At Waterville Valley, all resort shuttle buses are currently being converted to biodiesel. Several other NH areas such as Pats Peak, Cannon Mountain and the Balsams Wilderness are actively researching making the switch as well. Some ski areas further reduce their carbon footprints by producing heat from their own sources. Crotched Mountain and King Pine recycle waste oil to heat their base lodges and other buildings on their properties. The Balsams Wilderness produces electricity and heat using bio-mass resources. Windblown XC heats its buildings with wood fires from wood that is grown and harvested on its own land, as does the Pine Hill Ski Club.

Recycling happens behind the scenes, too. The ski area garage at Mount Sunapee recycles scrap metal and vehicle oiland Dartmouth Skiway recycles motor and other lubricating oils. Many areas have also begun using more sustainable practices in lodge kitchens, including the broad-scale recyling of materials used in food storage & preparation, such as paper products, cardboard, glass, cans and kitchen oil.

Another sustainable food & beverage practice is the use of environmentally-friendly food service products. At Waterville Valley, the cafeteria uses biodegradable plates and cups. Wildcat Mountain uses Greenwave environmentally-friendly food service products in its dining areas. Ragged Mountain Resort uses corn starch utensils rather than plastic, and the cafeteria at the Balsams Wilderness features corn starch base biodegradable tablewear and organic food stocks.

Business-related deliveries are asked to observe anti-idling policies. Delivery trucks burn large amounts of fuel through stationary idling for extended times as the delivery is unloaded, so it makes sense to shut down the engine.

Energy-efficient fluorescent light fixtures have been installed in many base lodges and ski area facilities, at areas including Cannon Mountain, Bretton Woods, Cranmore, Loon Mountain, Wildcat Mountain, King Pine, Balsams Wilderness, Mount Sunapee, Waterville Valley, Pats Peak, Ragged Mountain Resort, Jackson XC and Great Glen Trails.

Low flush toilets, water conserving sink faucets and other water-saving devices have been installed at Cannon Mountain.

Loon Mountain is the first ski resort in the eastern United States to make SkiGreen Tags available. They cost $2 each, and can be purchased at the same time a lift ticket is purchased. Each SkiGreen Tag represents 100-kilowatt hours of wind energy and offsets 140 pounds of global warming pollution. Waterville Valley operates a new employee shuttle that offers employees rides from exit 28 off of I-93 saving 22 miles round trip every day.

Ski areas take great care in preventing soil erosion on the hill and integrating sustainable building and renovation practices whenever possible. At Balsams WIlderness, any new or renovated construction is done under its GreenPath environmental management system. Bretton Woods, Cannon, Jackson XC, King Pine and Ragged Mountain Resort have made significant commitments to sustainable construction. Even little steps make a difference: Pine Hill Ski Club replaced 60% of its plastic trail signs with wood-routed signage.

Bretton Woods is expanding a wetland (Lake Carolyn) that is a natural habitat for fish and wildlife.

Wildcat Mountain is implementing a vegetation restoration project with the US Forest Service in Mountain Jag glade. Mount Sunapee buys all its electrical energy through renewable energy certificates that utilize wind-generated energy.

The Balsams Wilderness is the first resort in New Hampshire to be an ISO 14001 Registered Company and operates under an internal GreenPath Environmental Management System. From something as simple as Cannon Mountain's comprehensive energy audit to something as rigorous as the Balsam Wilderness' GreenPath Environmental Management System, ski areas are always looking for new ways to reduce waste and protect our environment for the enjoyment of future generations of skiers and snowboarders. If you have any suggestions or ideas, please let us know: Alice@SkiNH.com