Amid a tangle of environmentalists rallying at the Colorado Capitol for immediate action on climate change, a suit-clad representative from one of the state’s most iconic industries took the microphone.
Since 1980, Aspen’s mountains have lost a month of winter — 31 days in the cold months when temperatures no longer fall below freezing as they did in the past, said Hannah Berman, the director of sustainability and philanthropy at Aspen Skiing Co. Climate change is impacting not only Colorado’s mountain economies, but also resort towns’ way of life.
That’s why the ski company will work with environmental groups to lobby for state laws that accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and to clean energy sources, she said at the Jan. 30 event, standing in front of signs that read “Act Now! Coloradans Can’t Wait!”
“No single company, no sector, no industry, no community can solve climate alone,” Berman said. “A systemic problem requires systemic action. Our local kids deserve to grow up in a place that’s willing to leverage its influence to be a reckoning force to provide them as much stability — and as much joy — as possible.”
Berman’s speech in the Capitol exemplified calls from both inside and outside the ski industry for its leaders to publicly advocate for policies that will address the : increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, like burning fossil fuels.
While the big ski companies all agree that climate change is a threat to the multibillion-dollar industry and the globe, the volume of their calls for public policy change has varied.
The heads of four of the largest resort companies have named climate change as “the most critical issue we face.” The Lakewood-based National Ski Areas Association calls it the sector’s And ski companies for years have worked to reduce or offset their own greenhouse gas emissions and implement sustainable practices, such as investing in better recycling and pivoting to renewable energy sources.
But some resorts say that work is not enough. To truly make a difference, they say, publicly advocating for policy change at the local, state and federal levels must be a core part of their mission.
Other Colorado resort owners declined to even discuss the topic for this story.
“People are afraid to get political,” said Erin Sprague, the CEO of , a Boulder-based climate advocacy organization for outdoor recreationists, about hesitations to engage in the policy ring. “And the sad thing is, climate is an issue that has been polarized. But who doesn’t want clean air, clean water and more powder days?”
Neither of the two largest ski companies in the industry — both based in Colorado — agreed to interviews about their roles in shaping or advocating for climate policy, despite prior public pledges to lobby for climate-friendly policies.
— headquartered in Broomfield and valued at $4.7 billion — agreed through a spokesman to speak about how the company is adapting its operations to climate change but, over two months, did not make anyone available for an interview about climate advocacy despite repeated requests. Vail Resorts operates the Epic Pass program and owns 43 resorts across the globe, including Colorado’s Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Crested Butte.
A spokeswoman for responded to an email requesting an interview about climate advocacy, but stopped responding after The Denver Post declined to provide interview questions in advance. She did not respond to a series of follow-up emails and calls over the following two months.
Alterra, headquartered in Denver, has more than a dozen ski resorts in and operates the popular Ikon Pass program. It owns Colorado’s Steamboat Ski Resort and in 2024 purchased Arapahoe Basin. It also operates Winter Park Resort.
Persuading companies to engage on climate can be a challenge, said Chris Miller, the senior vice president of , the parent company of Aspen Skiing Co. Business leaders assume they have only so much clout to expend and use it on topics they see as more immediate concerns to their companies, like tax policy or labor law.
Others see it as too polarizing, said Miller, who led activism work at the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s for 12 years before joining Aspen One in March.
The ski industry cannot afford to look away from the existential threat, he said. Reducing resort emissions and increasing recycling are great, but will not solve the problem.
“We could shut our entire operation down tomorrow and our planet is still headed over the cliff,” Miller said. “We’re not going to collectively solve climate change by voluntary corporate action that varies company by company.”
A call to climate action
The history of environmentalism in the ski industry runs parallel to the history of the modern climate movement, according to Auden Schendler.
He would know — he spent more than two decades spearheading sustainability efforts in the ski industry and, in the three years before that, researched corporate sustainability.
The idea of corporate sustainability emerged following the rapid-fire passage of the country’s bedrock environmental protection laws: the Clean Air Act of 1963, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 and . Instead of a reliance on government regulation, the concept posited that market forces would push corporations to voluntarily and efficiently solve environmental problems on the local and global scales. Government change would then follow businesses’ example.
In the ski industry, that meant the cost savings from energy efficiency — and the positive public relations inspired by such change — would motivate companies to address climate issues.
Schendler felt fired up by this concept when Aspen Skiing Co. hired him in 1999 as the second employee in its new sustainability department, the first such department in the industry. He helped the company install energy-efficient lightbulbs, measure and reduce its resorts’ carbon footprints, and improve recycling and composting.
“But as we were doing this work, after about a decade, I started asking the question: Is this enough?” he said. “Is this actually the solution to a global systemic climate problem? And the answer I came to was no.”
Aspen Skiing Co., and the ski industry as a whole, needed to think bigger, he decided. It needed to engage in the issue where policy is made: in Washington, D.C., in statehouses, in elections, at meetings of county commissions and utility boards.
It also needed to convince other ski companies to join that work — and to do so publicly.
“Whatap always been the problem is that the companies will say they are doing that — ‘We’re lobbying for climate behind closed doors.’ But if itap behind closed doors, itap not meaningful. … By keeping it behind closed doors, you don’t change social norms,” said Schendler, who left Aspen One in 2025 and authored a book, about modern climate activism and the failures of the corporate sustainability movement.
As Aspen Skiing Co. ramped up its call for industry action, professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones in 2007 founded Protect Our Winters after noticing changing snow on mountains across the globe. At first, the nonprofit group focused on educating people about climate change, said Sprague, the CEO.
Education soon pivoted to political advocacy. By 2022, the organization was lobbying for the Inflation Reduction Act — a massive investment by the Biden administration in clean energy. POW also called on outdoor business leaders to join the political fight, even publishing a
“We really wanted companies to understand the level they have for influence — especially right now, when company leadership, in the absence of political leadership on this topic, is really important and often something their own consumers want to see,” Sprague said of the playbook.
Business leaders she speaks with worry about being seen as activists, she said. But she encourages them to see advocacy as simply exerting their influence on their communities and fellow business leaders — especially since climate advocacy will help their businesses in the long run.
“It takes a lot of courageous leadership to step forward and say what you believe in, and then couple it with action,” Sprague said.
trickled through the industry, but not all companies have adopted the mission to the same degree.
Little to say about once-heralded partnership
In an industry known for competition and season pass wars, an announcement of collaboration between the four largest ski companies in North America prompted a flurry of press attention.
In 2022, the leaders of Vail, Alterra, Utah-based POWDR and Michigan-based Boyne Resorts announced a new partnership dedicated to climate action. Through the the companies stated that “climate change is the most critical issue we face as business leaders and as citizens of this continent and inhabitants of Earth.”
Among other promises, they pledged to incorporate sustainability practices into their resort operations, pursue renewable energy sources and “advocate for climate protection through actionable federal, state and local policies.”
The leaders of the four companies — which collectively represented 77 resorts — stating that beginning in 2023, the group would “advocate at the federal, state, and local levels for policies that curtail greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate a shift to renewable energy sources, and establish a clean energy economy.”
It’s unclear whether they kept that promise.
Neither Vail, Alterra nor POWDR — which owns Copper Mountain and is in the process of selling Eldora Mountain Resort to the town of Nederland — responded to questions about the Mountain Collaborative. Emails sent to the address on the coalition’s website bounced back.
Colorado lobbying records show that Alterra has registered a position on one state bill. It entered an “amend” position and then a “monitoring” position — both of which are short of indicating support — on a that mandated transit planning in a way that reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
In its 2024 annual report, the most recent available, the corporation stated that it had joined efforts with a to pen a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize greenhouse gas standards for power plants and to advocateڴǰ .
Vail Resort’s lobbying records show the company supported several climate-friendly bills in Colorado between 2017 and 2022, including efforts to invest in air quality improvements and a bill to establish the . The company’s does not describe any advocacy work and instead focuses on efforts to make its resorts more efficient, reduce waste and use more renewable energy.
The database shows no registered lobbying in Colorado by POWDR.
A spokeswoman for Colorado Ski Country USA — the state’s industry association — also declined in an email to speak about the organization’s perspectives on climate advocacy. The organization’s primarily focuses on efforts at resorts to reduce carbon footprints, increase composting and recycling, and revegetate after resort development.
The association lobbies at the Colorado statehouse on a number of matters every session, according to state records that date back to 2003. In the past, those bills have included climate-related issues. In 2022, it aimed at funding clean air projects and that has helped pay for free public transit on high-ozone days. In 2021, it supported promoting the expansion of clean energy.
Quieter work at the federal level
The National Ski Areas Association lists advocacy to policymakers as one of three pillars of its climate efforts. In its , the association describes a series of events its representatives attended in 2024, including a panel on climate action at the Citizens’ Climate Lobby Conference, Climate Week in New York and the Conservative Climate Summit in Utah.
The Post reached out to the association on Dec. 1 to request an interview about the organization’s climate advocacy but, after multiple follow-up requests, spokeswoman Tonya Riley said in a Jan. 23 email that schedules would not permit an interview.
In an email, she highlighted the group’s work with , a nonprofit that organizes businesses for climate and environmental advocacy. Vail Resorts, Arapahoe Basin, Aspen One and Alterra also .
In March, Ceres from both major political parties to discuss the importance of clean energy and the economic benefits of federal clean economy incentives, Riley said in an email. The organization plans to attend similar meetings next month.
“NSAA advocates for policy tools that advance an equitable clean energy economy, sustain healthy ecosystems, and preserve outdoor recreation experiences for generations to come,” she said. “NSAA and ski areas across the country collaborate on multiple national climate advocacy initiatives.”
Sprague, from Protect Our Winters, said the group and other climate advocates needed to change strategy after the reelection of President Donald Trump and a Republican majority in Congress in 2024.
The organization is now playing defense on the federal level — lobbying against the Trump administration’s attempts to restrict clean energy development and testifying at the EPA against the rollback of clean air and water regulations.
“It looked like we were on a path to fix this thing,” she said, referencing the two major climate bills of the Biden administration. “Now we’re in a different era, where we’ve gone in a different direction politically but, economically, the solutions continue to grow and resonate.”
The organization is now focusing its offense on the local and state levels, Sprague said, such as working to end a moratorium on new solar projects in Montrose on Colorado’s Western Slope.
“It’s been a hard time for people, and I want people to take some hope,” she said. “The economics (of renewable energy) are working, the state and local level are working. This change is inevitable. We are going to make a transition to better sources of energy — we just need to do it faster.”
Involvement in advocacy is ‘our responsibility’
Data show that Coloradans and Westerners want climate action.
The 2025 edition of Colorado College’s Conservation in the West poll found that early last year “support the government taking action to reduce carbon pollution that contributes to climate change.” Across the eight states included in the poll, agreed with that statement.
Colorado climate advocates, too, are calling for ski companies to engage on policy for the sake of their industry and to protect the sports so many Coloradans love.
Ski industry leaders recognize the existential threat climate change poses and have taken important steps to advance clean energy and sustainability, said Noah Rott, a deputy press secretary for the Sierra Club, in a statement to The Post on behalf of the organization’s Colorado chapter.
“However, even more partnership initiatives and strategic efforts will be required to counter the enormously influential, wealthy fossil fuel industry that lobbies our legislature, pushes out misleading ads, and manipulates legislators and officials at the highest levels of our federal government,” he said.
Mike Nathan, the sustainability manager at Arapahoe Basin, sees it as an integral part of the resort’s work to advocate for policy changes and to urge the thousands of skiers and riders who visit the ski area to act.
“Itap our responsibility to be at the forefront of that advocacy work,” he said.
Nathan quickly listed a series of advocacy actions the resort had worked on: lobbying the state health department for stronger methane regulations for Colorado landfills; penning opinion pieces that urged state regulators to adopt rules encouraging the growth of electric vehicles; traveling to lobby Congress for legislation to ; and participating in Summit County climate working groups, including those focused on electric transportation and reducing waste.
In 2022, leaders from the Arapahoe Basin — which is relatively small compared to other Colorado resorts — were outspoken supporters of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“We really look at sustainability as one of the keys to our success and pillars of our business,” Nathan said. “But we also have a unique and powerful opportunity to be the messenger that drives the much larger change thatap going to help us out in the long run.”
Aspen One’s leadership in the last year published opinion pieces in Colorado media and the of a that greenhouse gases are a public health danger. The company submitted comments to the EPA opposing that rollback and sent a representative to D.C. to talk to lawmakers about climate change.
During this year’s midterm elections, the company will be watching which candidates prioritize climate issues, said Miller, from Aspen One.
“Whether we like it or not, and for better or worse, businesses are the most powerful entities in society,” he said. “They have great sway, not only with policymakers but with people as well. Corporations, businesses (and) brands are more trusted than the media, the government.
“Itap both an opportunity and a responsibility for us to use that trust to be advocates for some of these big issues society wrestles with — climate change is a great example of that.”
