Mountain IDEAL 

A Destination Stewardship Toolkit for Resort, Rural, Recreation, and Gateway Communities

 

 
 

Program Overview

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Destination Stewardship is the big-picture approach to the careful and responsible management of "common pool" resources (e.g. public lands, climate, water, affordable housing, equitable access). It requires community-wide collaboration and participatory planning to identify a shared vision and common goals.

Mountain IDEAL is your destination stewardship toolkit. 

At its core, Mountain IDEAL is a sustainable destination management standard that is formally recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. The standard was designed to guide destination managers through the process of implementing a stewardship framework to advance sustainable community development through responsible, regenerative, and transformational tourism. 

The Mountain IDEAL Destination Stewardship Framework aims to: 

  • Improve quality-of-life attributes
  • Enhance visitor experience
  • Safeguard sense of place
  • Amplify community engagement & equity
  • Activate economic development
  • Drive sustainable growth
  • Protect public lands and recreation assets
  • Regenerate biodiversity and environmental resources
  • Celebrate diversity & cultural heritage
  • Manage visitor impacts

 

Program Toolkit

Assessment Tools

Complete the free self-assessment to evaluate your destination's performance of the Mountain IDEAL best practices. Once the assessment is submitted, we will provide destination with a report card. These results can help local stakeholders identify priorities and define a roadmap for improvement...


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Planning Services

Connect with our destination stewardship planners for mentoring, turnkey templates, and/or advisory services for any number of research, planning, development, and implementation projects such as Destination Management Plans, Carrying Capacity Studies, Sustainable Business Programs, and more...

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Recognition Programs

Participate in an international recognition program offered through our partners at Green Destinations. There are two options: 1) Top 100 Sustainability Stories for those destinations who are just starting out, and 2) Third Party Certification for those destinations who have made significant progress...

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Latest Sustainability Tips

Climate Action Collaborative: Celebrating Our Annual Impacts

Happy September, Eagle County residents. This time of year, as fall peaks around the corner, the seasonal shifts ask us to turn inwards and do some critical reflection. As we lean into interpersonal reflection, it’s a great time to reflect on our work in the last several months, and beyond. We at...

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Calming Eco-Anxiety

Environmental conversations are often at the forefront of politics, social media, news, and debate in our community. Many of those conversations can be defined by a palpable sense of doom. This is especially true for younger generations, for which climate change has always been a fact of life and...

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Green Your Fitness Routine

Exercise is a daily habit for many of us whether we run, walk, lift weights, bike, hike, or participate in other fitness activities. Staying active is a great way to help our health, but can have significant impacts on our earth as well. If you’re looking for some easy ways to green up your fitness...

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Embrace the Waste!

August is a great month for holidays: National Watermelon Day on the 3rd, International Beer Day on the 4th, National Peach Pie Day on August 24th, and National Trail Mix Day on the 31st. What do all these days have in common? Waste! Watermelon rinds, beer cans, peach pits, and raisins...

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Climate Action Collaborative Stakeholder Meeting Recap

On Monday, June 26th, the Climate Action Collaborative (CAC) hosted its first semi-annual stakeholder meeting of 2023. CAC stakeholder meetings are an opportunity to come together and receive pertinent updates regarding CAC progress and work, along with an educational presentation from an outside...

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