Utah resort to offset energy use

Park City Mountain Resort, in partnership with its parent company, Powdr Corp., will offset 100 percent of its power from renewable energy sources beginning in June.

The resort's purchase of 13.9 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy credits will avoid nearly 19 million pounds of CO2 emissions annually.

Powdr Corp. will purchase nearly 50 million kwh of renewable energy credits at all seven of its ski and snowboard resorts and one tubing park. Powdr Corp. will work with Renewable Choice Energy, based in Boulder, Colo., as its renewable energy provider.

The provider uses sources such as wind, biomass and small hydro. The EPA estimates that Powdr Corp.'s purchase of renewable energy credits for all its resorts will avoid more than 85 million pounds of CO2 emissions annually, which is equal to removing 8,539 passenger vehicles from the road or powering 6,175 average American homes for a year.

In addition to purchasing renewable energy, the resort is actively involved in environmental initiatives to reduce its energy use. It is currently working on a refrigeration initiative that will use the ambient temperature of the outside air to cool walk-in refrigeration systems when possible instead of using air compressors to cool them. The resort will finish its lighting retrofit, which includes changing all building facility lighting on the mountain to more energy-efficient lighting.

In addition, the resort continues to install programmable timers/thermostats to reduce energy use and maintains its recycling initiative as well as 100 percent use of bio-diesel. This summer, guests and team members will welcome back the grazing goats, which act as a weed management system instead of using harmful pesticides.

Since 2005, the resort's environmental initiatives have reduced and offset 30 million pounds of CO2 emissions, reducing its carbon footprint by 97 percent.