Mad River Glen, with the help of it's non-profit partner, The Stark Mountain Foundation, has implemented the "Ski Green If You Can" carbon offset program for the upcoming season. It involves Mad River Glen purchasing carbon offsets to render the ski areas already minimal operations carbon neutral. These offsets will be earmarked to fund methane digester projects on dairy farms right here in Vermont. These projects directly reduce green house gas emissions in a meaningful way and would not have been possible without these kinds of carbon offset purchases.
What sets this program apart from others in the ski industry is that it also tackles the impact of each skiers commute to the mountain, not just the operational impact. In Mad River Glen's case the skier's commute has five times the impact as the mountain's operations. Using the "Ski Green If You Can" program as a vehicle we challenge skiers to follow the mountain's lead and voluntarily offset their commute when they buy tickets or season passes. "We wanted to get involved with this program so we could help Mad River Glen offset their operations, and encourage the skiers to mitigate their impact as well," says Stark Mountain Foundation President, Penny Parson. Skiers pay either $1 for a day ticket, $3 for a Mad Card(a book of 3 discounted tickets) or $10 for a season pass when they make their purchase.
It is pretty common these days for businesses to talk about their "carbon footprint" as concern over climate change has finally begun to resonate with consumers. Mad River Glen's philosophy is; if you don't build it in the first place you won't have to offset its long-term environmental effects. That being said the ski area operations still have an environmental impact. "We looked long and hard at offsets because, frankly, I was quite cynical about them," said Mad River Glen Marketing Director, Eric Friedman. "We would only go down this road if we could guarantee that the funds raised would actually go to a project that wouldn't have happened anyway, and we wanted it to be used for a project here in Vermont. That's why we after a great deal of research we decided to buy our offsets from Native Energy." Native Energy is a privately held Native American energy company. On behalf of its member tribes, they work to power America with wind and other renewable energy sources. They are involved in many projects around the nation including methane digesters on family farms in Vermont. All proceeds from the "Ski Green If You Can" campaign will go specifically towards these local projects.