Part Two of a Three-Part Series on Sustainability  

You don’t need to be a skier to care about saving winter. Everything we do – individually and collectively – depends on nature, and future generations will live with the consequences of what we do (or don’t do) now.

Around the world, winter is changing. Seasons are shorter. Temperatures are rising. Snowfall is less reliable. What once felt constant now feels uncertain.

Here in Lake Placid, and around our venues in North Creek and Highmount, winter is more than a season. It is the foundation of our communities and our way of life. That’s why the Olympic Authority is committed to maintaining world-class venues while also serving as responsible stewards of the mountain environments that sustain them.

Focused on What We Can Control

For everyone who lives here, plays here, trains here, or comes to experience snow and ice, our work matters. While we cannot control every action taken around the world, we are focused to what we can control—protecting winters in our local communities, safeguarding the environment of the Adirondacks and Catskills, and demonstrating what’s possible when responsibility and innovation work together.

These commitments are deeply rooted in who we are and who we have always been. They ground us in our mission and guide our leadership and allow us to set a clear direction that prioritizes environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles across every aspect of our operations. This ESG framework ensures that accountability, responsibility, and long-term sustainability are firmly embedded in everything we do.

Through this work, the Olympic Authority provides our local communities and our entire state with a multitude of social benefits. Attracting more than a million visitors each year, our venues serve as a major economic engine for our communities and contribute greatly to tourism and recreation in all the regions we operate. Just as importantly, they create opportunities for families seeking to discover winter sports, for athletes chasing dreams, and for community members coming together around shared experiences.

Beyond these social benefits, our ESG principles drive a continual focus on responsible management and environmental stewardship. Our staff carefully leverages our venues and resources to ensure broad access to winter sports and recreation while also taking innovative steps to protect the planet and the winters that define our communities.

Here are some of the tangible ways the Olympic Authority is advancing sustainable operations for the long term, while more immediately securing outstanding winter conditions across our venues to protect both our winters and our way of life:

Turning sunlight into snow – Two massive solar arrays are generating up to eight megawatts of electricity, allowing Whiteface and Gore Mountains to make snow with clean, renewable energy.

Advances in snowmaking – Smarter snow guns, precise pumping systems, and renewable energy all work together to power a more sustainable approach to snowmaking while ensuring excellent conditions for our skiers, snowboarders, and ski jumpers throughout the winter.

Innovations in efficiency – Employing high tech weather tracking systems helps our snowmaking teams make the most of every hour and every drop of water. In addition, they leverage drones to see exactly where snow cover is thicker and thinner to maximize snowmaking efficiency.

Variable frequency drives – These energy-saving devices are installed in snowmaking pumphouses to conserve power by controlling the rate water is withdrawn, thereby optimizing output of pump systems as the natural environment changes energy demands.

Snow storage – On Mt Van Hoevenberg’s Nordic ski trails, our team piles snow in the former 1980 stadium before the end of winter and covers it with insulating wood chips to effectively store it to get a head start on the next season and get trails open early.

Avoided emissions – In addition to solar power, Belleayre and Whiteface are purchasing green power from the New York Power Authority to meet remaining demand, enabling zero emissions from electricity use.

Hybrid and electric vehicles – Fully electric Zamboni ice-resurfacing machines keep the indoor rinks and our historic outdoor speedskating oval in pristine condition for skaters while hybrid snow groomers at all our ski venues are boosting energy efficiency with quieter engines.

Refrigeration upgrades – Ice is the birthplace of our Olympic Legacy. With highly efficient new industrial refrigeration systems at both the Olympic Center and Mt Van Hoevenberg, our teams are maintaining world class skating and bobsled, skeleton, and luge sliding surfaces with 20 percent less energy – reducing costs and easing demand on the local energy grid, all while providing more days of operations and more consistent conditions for recreation, athlete training, and major events.

LED Lighting – We’ve installed LED lighting in arenas and other major areas while continuing the upgrades across our venues. The change reduces energy use by 75% compared to traditional incandescent or fluorescent bulbs while also gaining far greater control over the brightness and other aspects of lighting.

Electric Vehicle Charging Stations – We are supporting our guests’ and employees’ efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels by providing EV charging stations across our venues.

Local Sourcing – Our food services teams at all venues continue to source more products from local vendors, shortening the distance goods are transported, fostering community connections, and boosting economic benefits, while also promoting healthier eating.

Expanding Our Impact

The initiatives above are some of the highlights of our team’s extensive efforts to protect our winters locally and preserve our climate globally. Additional solutions we’ve implemented include:

    • Organizing increasingly more sustainable events
    • Informing visitors and public audiences through volunteer programs and educational signs at our venues
    • Increasing natural light in workspaces to reduce or eliminate the need for artificial lighting
    • Reducing salt use to safeguard our local ecosystems and water quality
    • Converting fuel oil boilers to cleaner-burning, lower-emission propane across all heating systems
    • Continuing to develop hiking and mountain biking centers to use existing infrastructure and ease pressure on heavily trafficked trails
    • Modifying lighting with directional technologies to protect dark skies and preserve natural nighttime environments
    • Installing composting stations in our café and restaurant areas helps guests divert food waste from landfills and further reduce carbon emissions

Sharing Our Commitment

At the Olympic Authority, our passion for winter sports and protecting our winters is not only driven by our leaders and our ESG principles. It’s also shared by our more than 1,500 staff and by many people and organizations across our communities. Making sustainability a shared priority strengthens our actions and makes every effort more effective and meaningful. By working together, we foster greater participation in preserving our winters and in building a more sustainable future.

Building a New Legacy

The 1932 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid created a powerful and enduring legacy. Today, we have the opportunity to build a new legacy—one defined not only by world class experiences, but by responsible stewardship of the environments that make winter sports possible.  As we work to create more sustainable operations, we are equally committed to protecting winter in our Adirondack and Catskill communities and to preserve our quality of life for generations to come. With these priorities guiding us, we will continue to engage residents, consistently improve our operations, and take every possible step to deliver world-class sport, recreation, athletic development, and tourism—ensuring lasting benefits for all our communities.