Community or Commodity?

Abstract

There are differences between environmental and business interests towards development in mountain resorts. Is a place a community or a commodity? A key reason for this difference lies in the beliefs and values of the group, their ethics. Ethics are both the source of the problem and of the solution as mountain resort communities at tempt to implement sustainable development. Frontier ethics versus sustainability, and anthropocentric versus ecocentric thinking all have different impacts on the environment and economic decisions. The concepts of sustainable development, growth, community, commodity, carrying capacity, and other terms are defined. Then follows a discussion of the “Three E's”: Ethics, Environment, and Economics, the criteria for sustainable development. They must be considered together for any strategy to be successful. Mountain resort communities have the history, demographics, scale and physical attributes that make them ideal laboratories for applying new solutions to the ongoing challenges of growth management. They are microcosms of the macrocosm, mirroring global problems of development. Yet cause and effect are often more immediate, making it possible to see the results of policy changes in a short time frame. A strategy for sustainable development must be flexible and holistic, rooted in the hope of nurturing the special qualities of place and people that will draw visitors to a mountain resort community for generations to come.

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