GORE MOUNTAIN AWARDED FOR BATTLING CLIMATE CHANGE
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Six entities, including Gore Mountain Ski Resort were recognized with Environmental Excellence Awards during a special ceremony at Skidmore College on Wednesday.
Gore has a 25-year purchase agreement to obtain power from a large 1,500-panel solar array and is also committed to ongoing snowmaking efficiencies and widespread use of LED lighting.
Such steps, combat climate change, which threatens the entire ski and winter sports industry and related tourism, which are major contributors to the North Country economy as Gore attracts more than 250,000 people annually.
“We want to continue delivering fun cold-weather activities,” said Emily Stanton, Gore’s marketing and communications director. “That’s the business we’re in. These power purchasing agreements are a perfect fit.”
Awards are presented by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. A total of 92 entities across New York has been recognized since the program’s inception 15 years ago.
“I’m really heartened by the progress we’ve made here in New York,” said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos, who recently announced his resignation and will be leaving office in 2019. A replacement has not been named.
However, Seggos said the state faces a variety of environmental challenges ranging from safe drinking water to the spread of invasive species, in addition to climate change.
“It’s staggering to think what we might be facing in the next two generations,” he said. “It really will take an enormous amount of work. It will take businesses to innovate. You are the ones demonstrating that it’s possible.”
Gore’s 5.235-megawatt solar array, located in Whitehall, is the largest such project in the country dedicated to a ski area. The solar array saved nearly $124,000 in one year, and new ef-
ficient snow guns saved 860,000-kilowatt hours of energy, translating to a reduction of 946,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Located in North Creek, Gore is run by the Olympic Regional Development Authority. The ski area is also expanding recycling, creatively repurposing buildings and materials, offering locally produced foods, and offsetting energy use through strategic trail modifications, the DEC says.
“Not only do these projects protect the environment, they also save money,” said Ken Lynch, DEC executive deputy commissioner.
Other award recipients are:
• Great Neck Water Pollution Control District, in Nassau County, which replaced two aging wastewater treatment with a new state-of-the-art facility that is saving taxpayers more than $2 million annually. The district is also implementing projects that reduce carbon emissions, save water, reduce the use of hazardous chemicals, and reduce nutrient loadings.
• I Love My Park Day: Parks and Trails NY in partnership with NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Albany County. I Love My Park Day is a statewide annual that has grown from about 1,000 to more than 8,000 participants. Volunteers take part in cleanup, improvement, and beautification projects at state parks, historic sites, and public lands. More than 71 million people annually visit state parks, which support nearly 54,000 jobs.
• Stony Brook University Hospital, in Suffolk County, has a rooftop garden that supplies about 1,500 pounds of fresh produce for patient meals and local charities. Also, in just one year, the hospital has diverted and donated 11.5 tons of food.
• Suffolk County Community College Sustainability Program. With 27,000 students, Suffolk County Community College is the largest in the state. Its Office of Sustainability was established in 2014. Now, more than 2,000 students are “greening” their commutes through the college’s partnership with 511 NY Ride Share and Suffolk County Transit. The graduating class of 2018 was the first to wear eco-friendly gowns made from 100 percent recycled plastic bottles.
During the program, Mary Ellen Mallia, the University at Albany’s Office of Sustainability director, outlined an NYCARES program in which numerous State University of New York colleges and five private colleges, including Skidmore, are collaborating on efforts to adopt more environmentally friendly practices.
Professor James Kennelly, Skidmore’s director of sustainability for academic affairs, told about some of the goals the school is trying to reach. For example, plans call for obtaining 60 percent of all energy from renewable sources by 2025.
At present, Skidmore gets 49 percent of its electricity from two renewable projects, a 2.1-megawatt solar array, and a hydropower purchasing agreement with a facility in Columbia County.
The college also hopes to get 60 percent of its heating and cooling energy from renewable sources such as geothermal; reduce 2000 greenhouse gas emission levels by 75 percent; and obtain 25 percent of its food from local farms and fair trade sources.
Kennelly said it takes “head, heart and hands” to achieve such goals.
“When you get down to brass tacks, you have to work very hard at it,” he said.