{"id":1311864,"date":"2019-06-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=982362"},"modified":"2019-06-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T06:00:00","slug":"basalt-councilwoman-presses-aspen-skiing-co-to-walk-the-walk-on-climate-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/basalt-councilwoman-presses-aspen-skiing-co-to-walk-the-walk-on-climate-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Basalt councilwoman presses Aspen Skiing Co. to \u2018walk the walk\u2019 on climate action"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Construction progresses on the Basalt Vista Affordable Housing project in Basalt in March. The Habitat for Humanity Roaring Fork project will produce as much energy as homeowners consume. Aspen Skiing Co. was asked by a Basalt official to also build a net zero project.<\/strong>
Aspen Times file<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Aspen Skiing Co. is under pressure to Give a Flake in Basalt.<\/p>\n

Basalt Councilwoman Katie Schwoerer voted with the majority Tuesday night<\/a> to approve Skico\u2019s proposed affordable housing project at Willits Town Center. However, she stressed while addressing Skico President and CEO Mike Kaplan and members of his staff that she expects the company to \u201cwalk the walk\u201d on environmental issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that you\u2019re definitely addressing the day care crisis, housing crisis and traffic crisis,\u201d Schwoerer said. \u201cBut the big crisis that we are not addressing in this application is climate. Can you make this a net-zero building, Mr. Kaplan?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish we could,\u201d Kaplan replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy can\u2019t you?\u201d Schwoerer pressed.<\/p>\n

Net zero means a building produces as much energy as it consumes, thus offsetting its carbon emissions.<\/p>\n

Kaplan produced a chuckle from the audience when he turned to David Corbin, Skico senior vice president of planning and development and said, \u201cCorbin, why can\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer was solar capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say in part, because there\u2019s probably not enough footprint that we could ever get enough photovoltaics on that building to fully generate all the power that building would need,\u201d Corbin said, referring to the 53,000-square-foot structure. \u201cI don\u2019t know that we could make it net zero. We\u2019ve already taken a lot of steps to add photovoltaics to it, to be as efficient as possible in the building design, to go to electricity (from renewable resources).\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that Skico is a partner in a project in Somerset that captures methane from a coal mine to produce energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn effect, at a global level, if you will, we\u2019ve tried to address all of our power needs and effectively have through that project, so I think we\u2019ve kind of done it at the highest level,\u201d Corbin said. \u201cDoing it in microcosm on this site to make it entirely net zero, is probably very, very difficult. We\u2019ll try to make it as efficient as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skico is recognized as a ski industry leader on reducing its carbon emissions and lobbying for national policy change on climate issues. It launched its Give a Flake campaign last year to build support for an environmental agenda.<\/p>\n

Skico has committed to use all electric heat at its Basalt project so that it can tap renewable energy sources for power. It must also meet Basalt\u2019s Sustainable Building Policies for construction.<\/p>\n

Schwoerer kept pressing company officials to go further to address global warming.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these other things \u2014 housing, traffic day care \u2014 if we don\u2019t have a planet, and you don\u2019t have snow, we don\u2019t have people, then this application is irrelevant,\u201d Schwoerer said. \u201cI look to Skico to really walk that walk and push nationally, regionally and in our valley to always have the greenest and progressive thought and (technology) in buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n

She urged the company to add solar panels above its 46-space, off-street parking lot to provide shade and produce energy. Corbin said the company would explore the feasibility to see if it could be physically accomplished.<\/p>\n

Basalt is already the site of a model net-zero project in the Roaring Fork Valley. The Basalt Vista housing development by Basalt High School will produce as much energy as it consumes<\/a> by using solar panels on the roofs of the duplexes and triplexes, efficient construction and running on electricity. The project is being built by Habitat for Humanity Roaring Fork and multiple partners. There will be a grand opening of the first units to be completed on-site at 11 a.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

Auden Schendler, Skico\u2019s senior vice president of sustainability and community engagement as well as a Basalt councilman, didn\u2019t attend the Tuesday\u2019s council meeting because of the obvious conflict.<\/p>\n

When contacted Wednesday by The Aspen Times, he said he feels Skico\u2019s project will achieve net-zero status. It\u2019s a question of when, not if, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy electrifying the whole thing, we\u2019re teeing that up,\u201d Schendler said. \u201cAnd then the next step is to power it with 100 percent renewable.\u201d<\/p>\n

That will either happen as Holy Cross Energy continues to incorporate a greater amount of renewables into its mix or Skico accelerates the renewable mix with a power purchase agreement, Schendler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are having those conversations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also said the project is addressing the climate concerns raised by Schwoerer by locating it so close to mass transit. That eliminates traffic, pollution and congestion, he said.<\/p>\n

The council approved Skico\u2019s workforce housing proposal by a 4-2 vote. Company representatives said during the review process that it\u2019s roughly a $15 million project.<\/p>\n

scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Construction progresses on the Basalt Vista Affordable Housing project in Basalt in March. The Habitat for Humanity Roaring Fork project will produce as much energy as homeowners consume. Aspen Skiing Co. was asked by a Basalt official to also build a net zero project.Aspen Times file Aspen Skiing Co. is under pressure to Give a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 16:55:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}