Auden Schendler

Auden Schendler, a photo by Semester in the West on Flickr.

Auden Schendler
Executive Director of Sustainability, Aspen Skiing Company
Carbondale, CO
September 6

Despite his senior position at the “center of ridiculous consumption in the face of the world,” Auden Schendler makes a convincing argument for power as a necessary resource to solve climate change. Speaking to our group of burgeoning environmentalists and humanitarians, he offered up serious food for thought when he labeled the choice to move to Bangladesh and install solar panels as “selfish”. Auden believes that in order to combat global warming, each person must use the biggest leverage they have. And for Mr. Schendler, that leverage is Aspen Skiing Company. As a globally visible and influential corporation, Aspen Skiing Company has the power to steer both the companies who require their patronage and public policy towards renewable energy and neutral carbon footprints on a large scale. His challenge to Whitman students and to the wider world is to see climate change, not as an environmental issue, but as the umbrella issue that encompasses all other concerns. To be a responsible citizen, for Auden, is to make the biggest impact possible and to struggle every day to ensure that your overall impact is positive and carbon neutral.

By Katie Hardy