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Most people know Aspen as a refuge to the rich and famous, home to designer boutiques, $10,000 parkas on every street corner and some of the most expensive properties in the world.
Did you know that Aspen also has a green side?
Last March, Aspen Snowmass ranked among the first ski resorts to operate for a month entirely on renewable electricity. Along with the rest of Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, the quartet of Aspen Skiing Company (SkiCo) resorts (Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Snowmass and Buttermilk) are powered by Holy Cross Energy, a rural electric co-op. March 2026 marked the first monthlong stint in history for Holy Cross to provide renewable electricity for all of its members across Pitkin County and several other counties.
The City of Aspen’s electric system, which also happened to be the first municipality in the American West to use hydroelectric power back in 1885, has operated on 100-percent renewable energy since 2015. As ski towns go, Aspen has been a long-standing model of sustainability in many ways.
Local Housing Among Luxury Mansions
Sure, the average price of a single-family home in Aspen clocks in at a jaw-dropping $13 million, but the City of Aspen was one of the first ski towns ever to establish a locals housing program back in the 1970s and now offers local housing 3,500 units – a significant slice of the valley’s roughly 20,000 year-round population.
Aspen One – SkiCo’s parent company that also operates a series of hotels and retailers – offers its own local housing program with 1,400 workforce beds. Just this summer, the company launched a new Tenants for Turns program, in which it rewards (with Aspen-Snowmass season passes, lift tickets, etc.) local homeowners for renting ADUs, apartments or bedrooms to Aspen One employees. As the area’s biggest employer, Aspen One is also the largest player in the regional childcare tax district.
“We are proud supporters of that tax,” said Chris Miller, Aspen One’s Senior Vice President (SVP) of Sustainability. “Affordable housing and daycare are major priorities for our employees. We are all about creating livable communities.”
Aspen One’s New Ice Cream Expert and Sustainability Boss
Aspen SkiCo was also the first ski company to create a sustainability department. Miller stepped into the SVP role last season following the 26-year tenure of climate advocate and clean energy expert Auden Schendler, who shaped the company’s approach to sustainability and in whose footsteps Miller aims to closely follow.
A renowned environmentalist himself, Miller came to Aspen last season after working for 14 years on Ben & Jerry’s executive leadership team as Global Social Mission Director.
“There weren’t many companies I’d leave Ben & Jerry’s for,” Miller said. “Corporations are powerful entities. We’ve understood our lever to solve problems, to make less bad and more good.”
On-Mountain Environmental Efforts
In addition to Aspen One’s new Tenants for Turns program, the company is also the first in Colorado to try out Snow Secure – insulated snow blankets designed to manage snow from spring to the following ski season. SkiCo is piloting two blankets at Buttermilk, with the hope of reducing snowmaking by maintaining huge chunks of the resort’s massive terrain park.
Also, Aspen Mountain’s Silver Queen Gondola is run on all-electric power and Snowmass’ Elk Camp Chairlift is the first to install an electric battery backup. If you’ve ridden chairlifts and gondolas at Aspen-Snowmass this summer, you might have also noticed that many include signage raising awareness about the federal government’s cuts to the U.S. Forest Service. Set to re-open this 2026-27 season after full rebuild, Snowmass’ iconic Ullrhof restaurant will be the company’s first all-electric, on-mountain restaurant. Also, everyone who purchases an Aspen-Snowmass season pass is enrolled as a member of Protect Our Winters.
“We have all the tools to solve climate change,” Miller said. Our role is to set the standard of what great looks like in the industry.”
As evidenced in the City of Aspen’s robust, long-standing affordable housing program, childcare tax district and the fact that it’s powered by 100-percent renewable municipal electricity, local businesses also make sustainability a major priority in their day-to-day operations.
Snapshot of a Sustainable Small Business
Take, for example, the town’s long-running flower shop, Sashae Floral Arts. Originally opened in nearby Basalt in 1990, Sashae moved to Aspen in 1992 and has routinely been named best florist in the Roaring Fork Valley. Colorado Green Business Network has granted Sashae a bronze certificate for its many sustainability measures. These include recycling and reusing boxes, plastic materials and ice packs, as well as personally collecting and re-using glassware from clients. The company also practices integrated composting, making deliveries in hybrid vehicles and creating bouquets with unused flowers to send to the local senior center.
Green-Minded Lodging
As for hotels, Aspen One-owned Limelight Snowmass is LEED Silver-certified for sustainable architecture and energy/water reduction and Limelight Aspen underwent retrofitting expressly to optimize power use. The Gant, opened in 1973 and one of Aspen’s longest-running hotels, has become progressively green throughout every renovation, using bamboo paper products, recycling soap and plastic amenities from guest rooms to communities in need, equipping its parking with electric charging stations, and offering complimentary access to WE-Cycle, Aspen’s e-bikeshare program as well as major discounts on lodging with a “minimalist package,” which opts out of daily housekeeping. Sustainability is also a key driver behind The Gant’s forthcoming $63.5 million renovation beginning next spring (2027), including enhancing the property’s fire-resistant building materials, roofing systems, landscape updates incorporating defensible space practices, and improving lighting to align with Aspen’s dark-sky initiatives. The iconic Little Nell’s environmental initiatives extend from electric chargers to all-electric fleet vehicles, including an Audi e-tron for guests to drive. Replacing its boilers cut CO2 emissions by 300 tons a year, and the hotel’s restaurants (Ajax Tavern and Element 47) partner with local farms, composting all food waste (diverting 400,000 pounds from the landfill every year). The Little Nell even runs its own employee-founded (25 years ago) Environmental Foundation to promote clean energy and fight climate change, the hotel donating $2 of every night’s guest stay to the Foundation.
Integrated Environmental Education
Quietly educating everyone from schoolchildren to burgeoning biologists on land restoration, forest health, regenerative agriculture and environmental leadership for almost 60 years, Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) is a testament to the area’s long-standing commitment to the earth. Naturalists and biologists from around the world have spent weeks living at ACES Catto Center at Toklat, a solar and hydro-powered cabin where you can learn the intricacies of Castle Creek Valley and the neighboring ghost town Ashcroft during a naturalist hike, guided snowshoe tour, forest bathing, nature photography or cross-country ski excursion. The organization also studies and teaches on bird species around its nature preserve at Hallam Lake while its Rock Bottom Ranch is the headquarters for wildlands preservation and sustainable agriculture, its ACES Ed program leading fieldtrips through the property for elementary school children in Aspen and more than 50 surrounding schools.
So, while Aspen is famously affluent and is sprinkled with more expensive homes than just about any resort anywhere, it’s also doing its part to preserve the environment and keep real people living and working within its boundaries.
