By Wayne Arden, Vice-Chair, Sierra Club New York City Group

Climate Week NYC has become the world’s largest annual climate event — 900 events in 2025 — rivaling the scope of the UN COP conferences. The Sierra Club had a strong presence, sponsoring multiple events. The Sierra Club Foundation hosted an event looking at some of the financial aspects of climate change: “From courtroom battles to boardroom decisions, the panel will unpack what it means to uphold fiduciary duty in a warming world.” The Sierra Club released the fifth annual “Dirty Truth Report,” which scores electric utilities on their transition to clean energy. The Sierra Club also held an outing in Central Park, with a subsequent gathering at the Explorers Club, an iconic NYC venue. Attendees highlighted the urgency of increasing nature access and how the Sierra Club is expanding outdoor equity in NYC and across the country.

The NYC Group organized an event titled: Skiing and sustainability: achieving Scope 1 and 2 net-zero emissions.

Perhaps surprisingly, New York State is a driving force in the ski industry. NYS has 52 ski areas, more than any other state. (Colorado has 32.) In addition, NYS owns four ski areas, Belleayre Mountain, Gore Mountain, Whiteface Mountain, and Mt. Van Hovenberg, and has hosted the Olympics twice. Only one other state, New Hampshire, owns a ski area (Loon Mountain), and Utah will join NYS when it hosts the Winter Olympics for a second time in 2030.

The ski industry is highly threatened by shortened and warmer winters and has a vested interest in staving off this existential threat. Rising temperatures have made it increasingly difficult for the ski industry to prosper. Ski areas at lower elevations or unfavorable latitudes are closing due to a shortened season; they no longer have enough skiing days to be profitable. Tens of resorts have closed in recent years, including in 2024, France’s Alpe du Grande Serre, a major resort with 38 runs, 14 lifts, and 55 km (34 miles) of runs.

The event featured Dartmouth College and Boyne Resorts. Dartmouth is one of two universities that owns and operates a ski area, the Dartmouth Skiway, and Boyne Resorts is one of the major ski conglomerates; it owns ten ski resorts, most notably Big Sky in Montana. A key objective was to highlight the results Dartmouth and Boyne have achieved so far, discuss future objectives, and inspire future progress. Wayne Arden served as moderator of the discussion panel.

Carter Strickland, Chief Sustainability Officer for the State University of New York (SUNY), kicked off the event with opening remarks. Josh Keniston, Dartmouth’s SVP for Operations, overviewed the progress of the more than $500 million Dartmouth Climate Collaborative, an initiative which will reduce direct emissions 60% by 2030 and aims to achieve net-zero emissions overall by 2050.

The Collaborative encompasses the Skiway, whose master plan aims to become the “most sustainable ski operation in the U.S.” Boyne’s Tom Bradley, VP of Sustainability, overviewed Boyne’s ForeverProject, which targets achieving net-zero emissions stemming from company-owned operations (i.e., Scope 1 and 2 emissions) by 2030. Caitlin Hicks E. Pries, Dartmouth Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, discussed research at Dartmouth related to the Earth's changing climate.

Ski resorts are complex facilities that use electricity to power lifts and make snow, operate on-road and off-road vehicles, maintain buildings for skiers and lodgers, and manage extensive land and water resources. Given this comprehensive nature, they can serve as proxies for other industries. Thus, the event was about more than skiing. If the ski industry in NYS and elsewhere follow Boyne Resorts and Dartmouth’s leading examples in reducing emissions, then the industry can become a shining light for other industries to follow. In NYS, lessons learned from reducing emissions at ski resorts can be applied to other economic sectors, helping to achieve the NYS Climate Act 2050 net-zero emissions goal.

As we approach the 2026 legislative session in Albany, the Climate Act is under threat. The good work of Dartmouth, Boyne Resorts, and others in the ski industry demonstrate that not only is it possible to significantly reduce emissions, it is also possible to do so relatively quickly. New York State must stay the course.

For more information, please see the advisory press release, Sierra Club NY, Dartmouth College, SUNY Host Panel Discussion at Climate Week 2025 About Skiing and Sustainability—Results Achieved and Future Progress and the event video.