IMPROVING RESORT SUSTAINABILITY

Knowing where to start can be overwhelming when it comes to sustainability and climate action. The POW Canada Resort Alliance is a network of outdoor tourism operations working together to eliminate emissions, reduce environmental impact and create a roadmap to a sustainable future. Our purpose is to provide Resort Partners with inspiration, resources, tools and expert support to help you find new and creative ways to implement sustainability initiatives within your operation.

POW Resort Sustainability Handbook
Sustainability Support (certificates & consultants)
Research & Resources

POW RESORT SUSTAINABILITY HANDBOOK

BRING POW CANADA'S IMPACT AREAS TO LIFE IN YOUR RESORT

POW Canada’s Impact Areas guide our climate action and advocacy for effective and transformative change in Canada, and there are many ways to bring these to life at the resort level. If you’re looking for initiatives you can implement right now in your resort, we’ve brought examples and case studies from ski areas, resorts and other contexts across the globe to help inspire and guide you! This a living resource page, which means we’ll be adding your successful sustainability initiative or programs (please share any that you’d like to see highlighted), to provide an up-to-date, real-time guide to the change being driven by POW Canada Resort members from coast to coast to coast.

Get started right away and check out all our resources here.

Finally, if you’re looking for help on how to get started, our Research Specialist Nat Knowles has lots of experience working with ski areas on sustainability projects. Please reach out at [email protected]!

SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMS & CERTIFICATES

You don’t need a program or certification to be a sustainable resort and implement climate action, but they can offer simple and tailored pathways to support and achieve your goals.

NSAA Climate Challenge & Sustainable Slopes Grant Program:

NSAA’s voluntary program helps participating ski areas inventory, target and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to minimize their impact on their natural environment; to save money through energy-saving projects; and to participate in advocacy efforts that can have positive and wide-ranging impacts to their communities. Past grant recipients have reaped significant benefits, including more efficient snowmaking equipment, habitat protection, watershed protection, lighting retrofits, waste reduction, on-site renewable energy generation, energy consulting, ROI consulting, climate adaptation consulting, and thousands of dollars in energy savings.

Stoke Certified

Using the Global Sustainable Tourism Council Criteria as a foundation (see below), STOKE takes a comprehensive multisectoral approach to the assessment of ski tourism operators using 153 metrics that measure the efficacy of sustainability management systems, alpine resource conservation, quality and safety of the riding experience delivery, as well as social, economic, cultural heritage, and environmental impacts.

Global Sustainable Tourism Council

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) establishes and manages global standards for sustainable travel and tourism, helping both destinations ( public policy-makers and community managers), and industry (hotels and tour operators) understand their sustainable management; socioeconomic impacts; cultural impacts; and environmental impacts. Since tourism destinations each have their own culture, environment, customs, and laws, GSTC criteria can be adapted to local conditions and supplemented by additional criteria for the specific location and activity.

DEI Consultants

Amil Reddy, DEI Consulting
(they/them)

With over 12 years of experience, Amil works to identify where exclusion or underrepresentation exists in your communications and offerings, work to close these gaps by elevating these marginalized voices and advocating for change. They do this through thoughtfully aligning brand values with communications, building authentic allyship, and creating relevant content which deepens customer loyalty and influences positive social change.

Sabre Lee, Archipel Research and Consulting

(she/her)

Archipel is an Indigenous-owned and women-led company bringing together a diverse team of Indigenous, non-indigenous and racialized associates with the goal of bridging worlds of knowledge, generating understanding and coexistence between communities. Services include: engagement and facilitation, research, curriculum development and training, language translation, marketing inclusion insights and general consulting.