On 15 August, during the Eco Film Festival by Chysto.de in Slavsko, the GORO team presented its responsible development model for the new mountain resort and took part in the open discussion, “The Economy of the Wild: How Can the Carpathians Develop Without Losing Their Identity?”
Eco Film Festival by Chysto.de is Ukraine’s first specialised international festival dedicated to environmental issues and film, organised by the CHYSTO.DE environmental movement. The festival serves as a discussion platform for the environmental community, conservation organisations, activists and experts working to protect the Carpathians, biodiversity, waste management and the responsible use of natural resources.
Participants included Greenpeace Ukraine, Zero Waste Alliance Ukraine, the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group, the Frankfurt Zoological Society and other organisations. It was to this audience that GORO presented its responsible development model and opened it up for public discussion.
GORO’s responsible development model sets out the principles that will guide the resort’s development for at least the next 15 years — from site selection, spatial planning and architecture to forest restoration, dedicated utility infrastructure, natural resource management and the development of the local economy.
The model is built around five key areas: context-sensitive mountain development, forest restoration, energy resilience, water and waste management, and creating value for the local community.
The underlying principle is that nature must remain the defining feature of a mountain destination. GORO is not seeking to create a “city in the mountains”. Buildings and infrastructure are designed to integrate into the natural landscape while preserving a sense of open space and connection with the surrounding environment for guests.
“For a project of this scale, it is not enough to add a few environmental initiatives after the resort has already opened. GORO is being built from the ground up, which gives us the opportunity to embed sustainability principles into the very logic of the resort from the outset — into the way we plan the site, build infrastructure, manage natural resources and environmental impacts, and work with the local community. For us, it is important that this remains a systematic approach throughout every stage of GORO’s development,” says Rostyslav Mykhalchuk, Development Director at GORO Mountain Resort.
At GORO, this approach is summarised as “preserve → restore → regenerate.” It means combining the protection and restoration of the Carpathians’ natural potential with new opportunities for local businesses and communities. The resort is expected to stimulate entrepreneurship, create jobs and generate demand for local goods and services, while strengthening the Carpathians’ appeal as a nature-based destination.
Five pillars of GORO’s responsible development model
Context-sensitive mountain development. Before the ski slopes were planned, the international engineering company ILF Consulting Engineers of Austria conducted an initial environmental assessment of the site. The assessment identified environmentally sensitive areas, which were then excluded from zones designated for ski runs and other infrastructure.
The overall development footprint of the resort is expected to remain below 25% of the total site area, with the first-phase density at less than 10%. Architectural solutions are designed to minimise tree removal, use terraced development and integrate buildings into the natural landscape.
Forest restoration. Under the 15-year Carpathian Forest and Natural Heritage Restoration Programme, implemented by GORO together with Halsillis, the project plans to restore 240 hectares of forest and plant approximately one million seedlings. This is more than three times the forest area required to develop the ski slopes. The programme is already underway: 58,000 seedlings have been planted, and around 15 hectares of forest have been restored.
Energy resilience. GORO is developing its own energy infrastructure to avoid placing additional pressure on the existing electricity networks of the Slavsko community. Around €11 million will be invested in new electricity infrastructure, including approximately 15 kilometres of networks with a planned capacity of 17.7 MW.
Water and waste management. The resort will operate its own wastewater collection and treatment system, including treatment-quality monitoring, as well as a separate waste collection system with waste transferred to certified operators.
To design the snowmaking system, water levels in local rivers were measured weekly for five years. According to GORO’s calculations, water withdrawal will account for approximately 0.5% of the river’s average daily flow and will take place for around 60 days per year. The water will then be stored in a reservoir at the top of the mountain for use by the snowmaking system.
Creating value for the community. Tourism development should create value not only for the resort itself, but also for the area in which it operates. GORO therefore treats the local economy as an integral part of its development model — through job creation, demand for local goods and services, support for entrepreneurship and the development of local supply chains. The aim is for a larger share of the economic value generated by tourism in the Carpathians to remain within the Carpathian region itself.
According to GORO, the resort’s development is expected to create approximately 6,000 new jobs by 2030 and 25,000 by 2039. The project is also expected to increase demand for locally produced goods and services, stimulate entrepreneurship and support the emergence of new supply chains.
Managing environmental and social impacts
To manage the resort’s environmental and social impacts, GORO uses several levels of assessment. Individual components of the project are subject to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), while an international Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) has already been completed for the resort as a whole.
GORO is also currently developing an ESG & Sustainability Strategy. The next stage will be the introduction of an environmental management system aligned with ISO 14001.
Ukrainian and international experts have been involved in assessing the project’s impacts at different stages. The Institute of Ecology of the Carpathians of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is assessing biodiversity impacts; ILF Consulting Engineers (Austria) surveyed the site to inform the routing of ski corridors; and Egis (France) carried out a strategic analysis of environmental and social impacts as part of the ESIA process.
About GORO Mountain Resort
GORO Mountain Resort is an all-season mountain resort being developed by OKKO Group in the Slavsko community of Ukraine’s Lviv region. Total investment in the 1,200-hectare project over 15 years is estimated at approximately $1.5 billion. The first phase of the resort, which started in 2024, will include 10 ski runs, 100% snowmaking coverage, one gondola lift, two chairlifts and hotel infrastructure. The opening of the first phase is planned for 2027.
