Riders
You dream of waist-deep, bluebird powder days with your friends. Will the next generation be able to hoot and holler in the white room?
Unfortunately, scoring fresh tracks can have an impact. STOKE is here to help.
STOKE represents the Death of Greenwashing. Before STOKE there was no way to quickly, easily, and accurately gauge and compare the sustainability of snowboard and ski tourism operations. Some make bogus braggy greenwashy claims while others are silent warriors for sustainable stoke. Neither approach helps you choose operators who enhance the places you visit and support the communities that thrive there.
Ski tourism operators care what you think.
Show them that you’re passionate about protecting what you love. Since 2012, we have been refining and streamlining more than 150 quantifiable measures and 300 indicators of sustainability specifically designed for the ski and snowboard tourism sector. STOKE Certified ski areas and backcountry lodges have developed comprehensive sustainability management plans that ensure they are protecting the areas you love to ride and the people that live there. In short, certified members do this by (amongst many other things) disposing of liquid and solid waste effectively, using available renewable energy sources and reducing their carbon footprint, contributing to environmental conservation, supporting local businesses, contributing to local cultural activities and community events, as well as enforcing proper mountain safety without compromising riding creativity and progression.
You have the power to change the face of ski and snowboarding travel.
What will you choose? Choosing a STOKE Certified operator is a guarantee that the impact from your trip is not only being mitigated, but is actually having a positive effect on the destination and helping to solve global sustainability challenges so you can relax and stay stoked.
Check out some of our members below:
Certification speaks and returns volumes.
Before STOKE, it was impossible for your prospective guests to make an apples to apples assessment of your sustainability efforts. Some operators have muddied the waters by making false claims of sustainability while many others have incredible initiatives, but are not able to communicate this effectively to the market. Tourism operations are choosing third party sustainability certification to:
- Get help developing a systematic approach to sustainability
- Reap cost savings related to resource-use efficiencies and quality staff retention
- Gain market advantage
- Build customer loyalty
- Have authentic and impactful efforts recognized and respected
Sustainability demands much more than a recycling bin.
Those who truly champion sustainability should be rewarded with more than an “eco” label or a green leaf badge… you have worked too hard for your efforts to be recognized by something that does not fully represent your accomplishments and has no relevance in riding culture. That is why we created STOKE. STOKE Snow demands the highest standards in sustainability and stoke resonates with the riding community.
STOKE Snow has five real and significant advantages for members.
The 5 advantages of stoke snow
Market Access: we see you in the lift line.
The mainstream tourism market is impossibly diffuse and notoriously difficult to penetrate in a meaningful way. Ski and snowboard tourism is not. Most travelling snowboarders and skiers can be reached through a handful of magazines, websites, and event webcasts. STOKE Snow engages this market through these media.
Targeted & Appropriate Communications: we like face shots and pillow lines.
STOKE was developed by riders, for riders, in close consultation with the owner/managers of sustainability focused ski areas and backcountry lodges. We know how to communicate with the travelling skier and snowboarder market because we are that market.
Sector Specific Sustainability Criteria & Indicators: like you, all we do is ride.
Over a two year period, we developed more than 150 comprehensive sustainability assessment criteria that reflect the challenges and best practices specific to ski tourism operators.
Cost Effective, Even for Small Properties: you won’t be clipping tickets.
Membership and evaluation fees are indexed to annual turnover and are by far the most affordable on the market. If STOKE media outreach and brand association secures you a 1% increase in rider visits, your costs are more than covered.
Expert Support & Consulting: we know where to go three days after the storm.
STOKE is committed to sustainable mountain tourism. We have the leading researchers and consultants in our network for this specialized field. We provide a range of services to create and implement sustainable solutions for any ski area or backcountry lodge.
Certification Process
Become a STOKE member and get “The Kit”.
We provide specialized tools to systematically integrate sustainability from the ground up and to communicate your success. The Kit includes:
- STOKE Sustainability Management System Template
- STOKE Self-benchmarking Tool
- STOKE Customer Satisfaction Surveys
- STOKE Communications Strategy Template
- STOKE Supply Chain Transparency Letter & Questionnaire Template
- STOKE Membership Logo
- STOKE Member Profile on our website
Assess your current operations. Complete the STOKE Benchmark and submit.
Management can complete the self-benchmark or a STOKE representative can help your team work through the benchmarking process to provide deeper insight into all of STOKE’s criteria and compliance indicators and efficiently assess your business’ current operations. After the benchmark is submitted and reviewed by the STOKE Board for authenticity, you receive the “STOKE Benchmarked” logo for use on your marketing materials and a STOKE Benchmarked profile on our website.
Create a Roadmap to Compliance and Beyond.
Now that you have The Kit, you’re benchmarked, and you know your STOKE score, it’s time to plan how to achieve the highest level of certification and put it into practice. You can prepare your own roadmap to compliance (RTC) or you can have a STOKE representative roll up their sleeves alongside you to build a comprehensive RTC report:
- A STOKE RTC report provides you with clear, precise, and actionable short and long-term implementation strategies that outline your business’s unique pathway to STOKE compliance at the highest possible level.
- STOKE can help leverage your existing sustainability initiatives as well as source sustainable suppliers, create sustainability tours and interpretation for guests, conduct cost-benefit analyses on sustainability upgrades, and develop plans for incorporating your sustainability vision into your property, your staff, suppliers, and community.
Ready for the ride? Take the drop, and if you stick it - get certified.
Once you are confident that you exceed 70% minimum compliance for certification, gather all your supporting evidence and contact us to arrange a formal evaluation. The cost of evaluation includes evaluator travel expenses plus a fee indexed to the size and scope of your business. Evaluation follows these three steps:
- Schedule evaluation with a STOKE Certified Independent Evaluator—we have evaluators in many regions of the world to reduce travel impacts as well as costs for properties.
- The evaluator conducts a rigorous assessment of all criteria and collects supporting evidence including photographs, copies of documents, interviews with staff, guests, management, suppliers, and local communities.
- Evaluator presents evidence to STOKE Board who assess evidence and evaluator’s recommendations. Certification may be granted or denied based on evidence collected.
Let the world know.
Just like a double fisted claim on the ride of your life when none of your friends saw it, touting sustainability is only cool when someone’s there to back you up. STOKE is that high-five at the end of an epic ride. Upon accreditation, hoots and hollers are followed by:
- STOKE logo for the level of certification awarded
- A comprehensive property profile on the STOKE website with booking links as well as supporting content that showcases best practices.
- STOKE Certified press releases, digital and print media articles in endemic and non-endemic markets, and strategic, coordinated social media campaigns.
This is only the beginning.
Riders are constantly looking at the horizon for that next line. We’re always pushing to improve our performance and looking for the next perfect ride. STOKE challenges you to push your performance and be a better rider—not in terms of board control, but in terms of sustainability. Progression never ends.
- All properties are required to be re-evaluated within two years of certification to assure the riding community that our members are genuinely committed to sustainability. Re-evaluation fees are considerably lower as the bulk of the work in evidence collection takes place during the initial evaluation.
- Incremental improvements are expected between evaluations. We understand that environmental, political, and other factors create new challenges and can render previous initiatives irrelevant. What is deemed as an incremental improvement is carefully evaluated by the STOKE Board.
- If the property advances to a higher certification level, new logos and badging will be provided and a new round of media promotion entered into.
STOKE is here to honor sustainability pioneers and to usher in emerging sustainability leaders so that riding culture continues to innovate as much in sustainability as it does in riding style and creativity.