We are highlighting five ski mountains in the northeast that are taking proactive measures to protect themselves against the warmer winter that climate change causes. Part 3 of our Champions of Snow series was featured in The Advertiser Democrat. Here’s a sneak peak – or click here to read the full article
Mt. Abram’s sustainability lauded
By Leslie Dixon, Advertiser Democrat Staff
“GREENWOOD — A Boston-based business climate change association says Mt. Abram has made ‘bold’ moves to make targeted measures against climate change and its effect on the business.
‘In the face of a changing climate, Mt. Abram is taking bold measures to survive warmer winters,’ Carly Hicks of the Climate Action Business Association in Boston said in a statement released this week.
Accessed by five lifts and having a vertical drop of 1,150 feet, the ski area located just off Route 26 in Greenwood boasts 51 ski and snowboard trails. The organization, whose stated mission is to ‘to help solve the climate crisis by organizing local business leaders to be more effective advocates for climate change action within our communities, at the business, and at local, state, regional, national and international levels,’ chose five New England ski resorts, including Mt. Abram, to highlight as Champions of Snow this winter.
The program showcases the efforts that small mountains are taking to lessen their environmental impact and adapt to the warmer winters that climate change brings, Hicks said.
Over the last seven years, the Mt. Abram ski area has developed a massive solar array and energy savings programs that are part of a project called ‘Sustainable Slopes.’
In 2010, Mt. Abram officials told the Sun Media Group that despite strong mountain winds, turbines were not an option so they look toward solar energy as a noninvasive alternative.
In 2013, using a $235,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Energy for America Program grant, mountain officials developed an 803 solar panel project, which gave the resort 75 percent of its power from the sun.”
