BACK IN THE OFFICE, Schendler dives into the day's challenge: biodiesel. The SkiCo got lots of attention in 2002 when it decided—at his urging—to run its Sno-Cats on B20. But now he wants to go back to using regular diesel. It's become cleaner, and biofuels, because they rely on land that could be used to grow edible crops, may contribute to the global food crisis. Schendler and vice president of marketing Jeanne Mackowski are discussing ads to explain the change in policy.

"What do you do?" Schendler says. "For us to continue to use biodiesel when it doesn't do environmental good, just because we have that message out there—3we can't do that and stay true to any level of integrity."

For this reason, Schendler also rethought his position on renewable-energy credits. Despite having convinced the company to invest in them heavily in 2006, he believes that RECs do little to encourage new clean-energy development. Last year, in fact, he wrote a letter to the California-based Center for Resource Solutions, calling RECs about as meaningful as trading "rocks, IOUs, or pine cones." Now the SkiCo has phased them out.

This can be maddening for other resorts. They're out there buying RECs as fast as they can, trying to keep up with eco-leaders like Aspen. Meanwhile, Schendler is totally over RECs, and on to things like endorsing a progressive candidate for the local utility board and filing amicus curiae briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court. The SkiCo did that last April in Massachusetts v. EPA, in which the court ruled that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases should be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act. Schendler calls this his single biggest accomplishment and has little patience for those flummoxed by his evolving stands. "My response is kind of an annoyed 'Oh, you thought this was going to be easy?' " he says. "This is the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. It's an absolute fricking mess."

But even Schendler would say the industry is making headway. Jackson Hole has become ISO 14001–certified. Vail aims to reduce energy use by 10 percent in the next two years. Tiny Massachusetts resort Jiminy Peak has built a $4 million, 1.5-megawatt wind turbine to provide almost half its power. California's Kirkwood Mountain Resort is building not one wind turbine but 20. And the nonpartisan National Ski Areas Association has lobbied Congress in support of the Lieberman- Warner Climate Security Act. According to the association's 2008 Sustainable Slopes report, 68 of the 180 ski areas participating in the voluntary program are offsetting at least some of their greenhouse-gas emissions.

Some would argue that this is putting lipstick on a pig. Name another sport with as much impact on public lands—clear-cut runs, heavy machinery, millions of schussers in the wilderness in winter. And for every ton of carbon saved by an energy-conscious Aspen or Vail or Telluride, you could point to another planeload of jet fuel burned to get there and another new forest of fudge shoppes and condos in what used to be elk habitat.

"There are a lot of things they're doing well, but you cannot deny the long-term and permanent impacts of the industry," says Myke Bybee, a public-lands specialist at the Sierra Club. "Most ski resorts make their money nowadays not on lift tickets but on real estate. So now you've got sprawling developments in what used to be a sleepy mountain town."

The industry's harshest critic may be the Ski Area Citizens' Coalition, run by Durango-based nonprofit Colorado Wild. Each fall, the group releases a scorecard that rates dozens of the country's 481 operating resorts on their eco-performance, handing out grades from zero to 100. The 2008 valedictorian: Aspen Mountain, with an 88.9. Class dunce: Copper Mountain, scoring 29.

"The major impact that ski resorts have is on the immediate environment, not on the overall climate, and I don't see a lot going on in that respect," says Hunter Sykes, who coordinates the scorecard. "Everything is focused on energy consumption and maybe a little recycling here and there."

For example, he says, Vail Resorts, which owns Breckenridge and a host of other western ski areas, is making progress on energy issues. But their real estate arm is "building, building, building, bringing more and more people, bringing more traffic, so you have water-quality issues, air-quality issues, and what is literally urban sprawl in a rural, pristine environment."

The NSAA defends that expansion, pointing to the 2007–08 season's record 60.5 million skier/snowboarder visits, and resort higher-ups are adamant, too. "A view that says that any growth is bad is obviously not something I can subscribe to," says Vail's CEO, Rob Katz, "[but] if we're going to add a new development, like we're doing at Ever Vail, we're going to make it LEED-certified. Yeah, we're going to be environmentally responsible and socially conscious, but always in a way that still provides guests with what they want—because that's the business we're in."

Compared with other major resorts, the SkiCo's involvement in real estate has been limited, and it makes a huge point of building green—putting solar panels on the Little Nell hotel and working with an outside company, Related WestPac, to ensure that the billion-dollar redevelopment of Snowmass Base Village is LEED certified. But with its Fendi boutiques and jet-setting clientele, Aspen attracts a special brand of criticism.

"There is an obvious tension," says Jim Crown. "We are expecting a certain amount of energy to be consumed—a certain amount of carbon to be released—in order to operate our business. We aspire to have a stable and successful business. So what do we do to keep that reasonable?"

It's a question Schendler struggles with too. "Do you say, 'You can ski, but you can't have a luxury condo'?" he asks. "Where do you draw the line? 'You can't ski, but you can kayak. No, you can't kayak, because of the shuttle.' We have to fix the whole system, so that when you ski, there's a limited carbon footprint."

"In a sustainable world," he adds, with his typical over-the-top candor, "you're probably not going to fly or ski all that much. But in the interim…"