Description:
Beaver Creek Resort has focused greatly on environmental education. To make improvements in this area, we hired an environmental coordinator with experience in both compliance issues and environmental programming and we creating an environmental committee. Beaver Creek's environmental committee has been charged with meeting to create unique environment-focused programs and initiatives to be implemented at the resort, on the mountain and within the village, winter and summer. One of the committee's first initiatives was the Environmental Learning Center. The committee, and the environmental coordinator, wanted to create a space where both employees and resort guests could learn about their surroundings through interactive and interpretive displays. The idea grew from a summer environmental program, called Hike-ology, which was created earlier in the same year and focused on providing education about the area's flora and fauna in a child-friendly format. Essentially, the resort has tried to expand on this educational platform, as we believe our environmental programs are exponentially beneficial if they reach our internal and external guests, helping more people understand contribute to the idea of Sustainable Slopes. Our approach to education is as follows: • Education is the cornerstone to environmental stewardship, as the internal community of employees must understand all objectives and initiatives. • Our environmental community relationship sets the tone for all sustainability of the ski industry. Educating and communicating with the local, state, and national community is the key to success. • Our summer/winter guests' perception of our environmental stewardship of the public lands we are entrusted with is the final key to success. Results: During the 2001-2002 ski season, Beaver Creek opened its environmental learning center (ELC) at Beaver Creeks' Patrol Headquarters (PHQ), located at the top of Birds of Prey Express lift (chair #8). The ELC is dedicated to promoting education to the over 500,000 guests and employees who visit and work at the resort each year. Target displays include "Living With Wildlife," "Recycle, Our World Depends On It," "Energy The Renewable Resource," "Sustainable Slopes," and resort and guest responsibilities in these efforts. Designed as an education resource, the center incorporates several interactive displays, and a continuous-loop sustainable slopes video station, each portraying the many topics the embraced through the resort's environmental efforts. The ELC has been a tremendous success and is regularly visited by the skiing guest and by the resort's employees.

Resort Web Site

Resort Contact: Zachary Tibodeau

Silver Eagle Award - Environmental Education
2003 (Winner)