Piper Foster, executive director of the Sopris Foundation, said she was inspired by Snowmass' recent steps to develop an environmental plan. "My impression has been that [until now] the town has abdicated from environmental policy," she said. She said she was also encouraged by the reaction of at least one Snowmass second-home owner to the Sopris Foundation report.

Between 61 percent and 68 percent of all single-family residences and condominiums in Snowmass Village are second homes, the Sopris Foundation reported Friday. A 2007 study by the nonprofit organization showed that 58 percent of residences in Aspen are vacation homes. "We wanted to follow up on a gut feeling that fewer local residents live in Snowmass," said Sopris Foundation director Piper Foster.

A recent study by the Sopris Foundation found that vacation homes account for 61 percent of Aspen's annual carbon footprint, even though they're unoccupied for an average of 277 days per year. The study also found that Aspen has 129 homes of 8,000 square feet or more; that's a whole lot of wasted space.

"Many energy demands are unnecessary and egregious: driveway heating, roof melt systems, hot tubs, towel bar heaters, 24/7 exterior lighting. ...Excessive energy consumption, often with no comfort or security benefits, represents a problem for a community that aims to reduce community energy intensity and emissions of greenhouse gases," said the Sopris Foundation study.

A study commissioned this fall by the Aspen-based Sopris Foundation determined that the average vacation home emits 12 percent more carbon dioxide than resident-occupied homes. Single-family residences that are second homes produce 35 percent more carbon dioxide than full-time, single-family residences.

Local nonprofit the Sopris Foundation showed its film, "Nobody's Home," to a small group of involved local residents in the Aspen Skiing Co.'s conference room at the Aspen Business Center yesterday. The 15-minute documentary on Aspen's change from ski-bum haven into second-home enclave was made for a conference in Missoula, Montana this summer on living in the new West. It was meant to spark dialog on what people could learn from Aspen's successes and failures — and that it did.

With their heated driveways, outdoor hot tubs and 24-hour surveillance systems, Aspen's vacation homes each use more electricity than a block of average American homes, a new study reports. They emit more carbon than Aspen's fully occupied homes, according to the study by the Sopris Foundation.

A recent study on vacation homes in Aspen has found that they are responsible for the majority of residential energy emissions, even though they are unoccupied much of the time. The study, entitled "Anybody Home?" found that 61 percent of Aspen's residential emissions come from vacation homes, which the study estimated were unoccupied 277 days per year.

My community is a holding company. It's real estate designed rarely to be used that mimics Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone Park — parkitechture if you will, which lays empty but gaudy upon our mountainscape. These are not homes. In the West's resort towns, these are parking spots for the executive bonus.