VAIL — Somewhat quietly, Vail Resorts has chosen to make its real-estate developments significantly more environmentally benign. Most remarkable of all are plans for a new project at the base of Vail Mountain that is called Ever Vail.
The project, which is penciled in as a $1 billion development, has applied for platinum certification under the LEED program. Platinum is the highest and most rigorous of four levels of LEED, a process sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The website for Vail Resorts — which also operates five ski areas — says that the project will use a variety of new renewable energy sources for heating and electrifying of the Ever Vail housing and commercial spaces.
For example, small hydraulic turbines, called microhydro, are to be installed in Gore Creek, to create electricity used for street lighting. Also planned is installation of ground-source heat pumps, which tap the year-round temperature of the ground 8 to 10 feet below the surface, which is at 55 to 60 degrees.
Buildings are being designed to best employ passive solar heating during winter months.
As well, some of the roofs are to be covered with dirt and planted with grasses, to reduce the runoff and improve insulation.
Water reclaimed as snowmelt is to be used as “gray water” in the toilets, to avoid the use of treated, potable water. A “closed-loop” gray water system is planned to wash all snowcats and snowmobiles used for operations at the ski area.
Elsewhere in its operations, Vail Resorts is also raising its goals. In Wyoming, the company is aiming for a gold-level LEED certification — the highest ranking next to platinum – for its 12,000-square-foot clubhouse at the Jackson Hole Golf & Tennis Club.
In Colorado, at its corporate headquarters between Denver and Boulder, Vail has been awarded a LEED-CI certification. In California, a restaurant called Powerbowl Lodge being planned at Heavenly is also being designed to LEED standards.
How soon Ever Vail will get built is a matter of conjecture. While Vail Resorts has high hopes of moving forward soon, the company is engaged in what amounts to a shoving match about another potential development site where the ski and real estate company owns the land, but where town officials have teamed up with another development company.