Aspen Skiing Company: Making the Most of its CO2 contribution to the Courchevel Ski Resort and Les 3 Vallees’ Snow Canons
With rising temperatures and a climatecrisis, resorts need water-thirsty snow cannons to keep the business going. And that doesn’t even factor in the physical and visual impact of development on the alpine environment.
Planet-warming emissions are rising so quickly worldwide that experts at the World Meteorological Organization estimates that we could see another hottest year on record within the next five years, beating the previous record set in 2016.
In further efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, resort operators are redefining their purchasing strategy to ensure sustainability across products, equipment, food and merchandise.
A recent study has shown that half of the carbon footprint for a day’s skiing comes from travel to the resort.
“It’s a worldwide responsibility to do something,” said Gilles Delaruelle, the head of tourism for Courchevel, one of French skiing’s top resorts and part of the vast Les 3 Vallees area.
“We’ve seen there is climate change on the mountains, we’ve seen different temperatures, we’ve seen new highs on the top of the mountain, we saw the snow not coming like in the past at the same period and at the same level. We need to take care of the change.
“The industry depends utterly on a stable climate and a pristine natural world,” said Auden Schendler, senior vice president of sustainability for the Aspen Skiing Company. We should have a part in protecting that because that is what we are selling.
The website Save Our Snow claims that 58 ski resorts are powered completely by green energy and 56 of them produce some or all of that.
“We have to run our lifts, we have to heat our hotels and restaurants and we have to make snow. How can we do those more efficiently is something that you have to think about.
Aspen’s main weapon in dealing with climate change is moving the issue closer to the source, and using the resort’s fame and influence to do so.
Holy Cross Energy is the utility for Aspen Skiing Company, and it hopes to switch to 100% renewable energy by the year 2030.
“It took forever, it was difficult, but that changed not just us but our competitors,” said Schendler. The point is that big-scale change isn’t the kind of thing you usually hear executives talk about.
The Aspen Project and the Aspen Environmental Impact Plan: a case study in Switzerland’s Laax, the first ski resort to become carbon neutral by 2030
The project in which Aspen Skiing company spent $5.34 million is a plant that converts methane from a coal mine into electricity.
Aspen also helped develop the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) scheme for green buildings in 1991 and is now developing all-electric buildings, alongside an array of solar projects to supplement its green energy supply.
Schendler, though, warns that carbon neutrality can sometimes be a red herring as paying for schemes to offset emissions doesn’t achieve systemic change.
Switzerland’s Laax, the country’s second-largest ski area, has a lofty ambition to be the first Alpine resort to become self-sufficient in energy, with 100% of its need coming from climate-friendly, regional sources.
“Systemic solutions are the way we need to deal with climate change, we need to get to net zero by 2050 or sooner, ideally,” said Dominic Winter of Protect Our Winters UK , part of the global climate change lobby group founded by American professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones in 2007.
The other significant elephant in the room when assessing the environmental impact of ski resorts is the huge carbon footprint of visitors to ski resorts, notably foreigners arriving by emission-heavy flights.
The ski area in New Mexico, Taos Ski Valley, will get five of its buses converted to hydrogen in collaboration with Green Corp Konnection.
The group, which is exploring electric and hydrogen groomers with French manufacturer CM Dupon as part of a pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030, says the HVO fuel will lead to a reduction of 9,900 tonnes of CO2 equivalent or 72% of the direct carbon emissions of all its mountain activities excluding electricity. CDA will also educate groomer drivers and lift operators in the most efficient ways of operating to save fuel and energy.
The only traffic allowed is for mini electric buses, while the snow grooming fleet uses cleaner diesel and emits less carbon monoxide.
The technology of the cats is a niche one, so we’re at the mercy of the manufacturers. The play is to get off diesel and move to electric in the future. That technology is coming, but it isn’t at a large scale.
The Val d’Isere téléf’ere’s s’easur’on de l’air : ‘Etude approfondie de la
The third pillar of skiing resort operations is snowmaking, and it is important to ensure the runs into resorts and other busy areas have enough coverage.
The mist of water is sprayed into the air so that cold air can freeze into snow. The use of a nucleating agent can help ice crystal form more easily.
Val d.Isere’s snowmaking factory now uses half as much water as it used 20 years ago in order to produce twice as much snow.
“This is an area that we have been looking into for several years now, and it requires real expertise,” says Aurelie Leveque, Operations Director for Val d’Isère Téléphériques.
“The process doesn’t require any chemical products or additives, and the water that we use comes from the drainage basin that flows into the Isère River, which is filtered before being sent to our snowmaking network.”
On an annual basis, snowmaking is 10% of total energy use. The total water use is a teeny portion of the watershed. The technology has gotten 10-fold more energy efficient over the last decade.
Schendler says he doesn’t like snowmaking but that he has to do it as efficiently as he can.
The Courchevel Project: Making Sense out of an Unsustainable Ski Resort in the Val-d’Isere Spectacular Region
In Courchevel, there are more trees now than when the resort was first built in 1946, while Val d’Isere was recently awarded the French Flocon Vert sustainability certification, is making big strides in the conservation of endangered black grouse.
Expansion and linking adjacent ski areas to form mega resorts is a modern trend motivated by commercialism but also highly controversial.
The long-mooted plan to connect Otztal glacier to Pitztal glacier threatens to change the environment forever, according to critics.
Are we winning? No. Schendler said, “That’s self-evident.” We have more work to do since global CO2 emissions are not being reversed and the curve is not falling.
About 8 million liters of heating oil and 24,000 tons of CO2 emissions are saved each year, thanks to the four plants that supply 100% of households and businesses.
A $30,000 contest to help start ups in the Ecology and Technology field. The 2021 winner has developed pioneering 100% recyclable skis, saving 150,000 pairs of rental skis annually from the trash.
The new V-Cableway Eiger Express operates on a mixture of hydroelectricity and CO2-neutral thermal energy from a wood-fired heating plant that burns forest chips, sawmill residue and waste wood from the region. The latest cableway technology also ensures fewer pylons and less deforestation.
Val d’Isere Telepheriques, the lift company, has run on 100% green energy since 2012, with solar panels on the façade and roof of the Olympic cable-car station adding to the supply.
A sustainable ski resort in Savoie, Val d’Isere, Tignes (Novaise), a 15-year-old town with ambitions of 2025
Editor’s Note: Monthly Ticket is a CNN Travel series that spotlights some of the most fascinating topics in the travel world. We are working to make tourism more sustainable in February.
But while skiers dance in nature’s playground, the infrastructure facilitating all that fun comes at a cost to an environment already under severe pressure from a warming planet.
It grew out of a sleepy Savoie hamlet at the head of the Tarentaise valley, but now Val d’Isere and neighboring Tignes are leading the way in sustainability.
The pair have recently earned the prestigious Flocon Vert (green snowflake) label, which recognizes 20 sustainable development best practices, including energy conservation, recycling, local initiatives and biodiversity projects such as protecting black grouse in the adjacent Vanoise National Park.
It’s a step on the way to an all-electric or hydrogen-powered fleet. The town’s buses have transitioned from diesel to GTL (gas-to-liquid) with a target of 15 electric buses by 2025, in accordance with resort operator Compagnie des Alpes’ pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030.
Visitors can take the train to reach the heart of the town, which is free of cars and has connections to both airports.
The new 3S cableway’s valley station has solar panels that are expected to produce power equal to 35 households and will save 23.4 tons of CO2 a year.
The building of the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise puts enough energy from the solar panels into its yearly heating, lighting and cooling needs.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/sustainable-ski-resorts-cmd/index.html
An environmental visionary move to renewable energy for the development of Ruka and Oberlech, a Nordic ski resort on Saarbrücken, Finland
Zermatt is also big on “renaturation,” removing obsolete infrastructure such as old lifts and repairing damaged sites. Every 15 years cables are replaced and used in bridge building.
“Quality before quantity” has been Lech’s mantra since the 1960s, and the resort has retained its charm, agricultural heritage and Walser identity by strictly limiting development and allowing a maximum of 10,000 guest beds.
The exclusive enclave of Oberlech, perched on a sunny shelf above Lech, is traffic free thanks to an ingenious tunnel that whisks luggage, supplies and waste up and down from the hotels and chalets in electric vehicles while guests glide overhead in ski lifts.
Among myriad other eco initiatives, Lech is also home to a herd of Scottish Highland cattle, which graze steep slopes in summer to help prevent avalanches in winter, while their meat is used in local gastronomy.
Swiss hydropower has power the resort which was allied to some of the world’s best terrain parks.
Local environmental visionary Reto Fry would like to move away from renewable energy in order to save the environment in the extended Laax-Flims-Falera-Trin-Sagogn region.
His plan includes de-carbonizing buildings with sustainable materials, adding solar panels, moving away from oil-based heating, promoting electric mobility and on-demand ski lifts.
The energy used to make artificial snow has been reduced by 40% due to the use of green snow grooming vehicles and pre-build features for the terrain park.
Ruka is the other ski resort in the center of Finland and it has the same stated goal of being the cleanest ski resort in the world.
Fossil fuel damage caused by piste-prep machines is offset by it. That has been reduced by up to 90 percent since the introduction of renewable biodiesel in the year 2021, which equates to removing 220 petrol cars from the road, according to the resort.
The resort switched to 100% green power for all its lifts, facilities and base operations in 2019, using wind power from Horse Butte wind farm in neighboring Idaho and two local hydro suppliers in Wyoming.
The ski area, known for the quality of its snow, its challenging terrain such as Corbet’s Couloir and the characterful Teton Village base area, has pledged to put all development, including materials, through a review process to ensure environmental best practices.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/sustainable-ski-resorts-cmd/index.html
Courchevel: A big sky, big eco ambitions and ski resort footprint in the Greater Yellowstone Valley (via Report on the Whistler operation)
There is a big sky, skiing and big eco ambitions. This Montana mammoth, centered around Lone Peak, receives an average of 400 inches of cold, dry northern Rocky Mountain powder across its 5,850 skiable acres, 300 runs and 39 lifts in the Greater Yellowstone region.
As of January 2021, the resort claims it will be 100% carbon free because of the purchase of carbon credits.
Big Sky has local schemes such as guest carbon offsets, solar-powered operational elements, a transition to LED lighting and advanced snowmaking.
Known for its designer chic as much as its ski area physique, Courchevel sits at one end of the vast Les 3 Vallees, sharing 600 kilometers of linked runs with Meribel, Les Menuires and Val Thorens.
The jet set favorite loses eco points by having glitterati land at its airport, but it makes up for it by using 100% green energy for its lifts and snowmaking.
The ski area has more trees now than it did when it was first created, according to the resort.
Courchevel hopes to reduce traffic by encouraging visitors to park in the valley further down the hill and ride in a new lift from Le Praz 1300.
It is also diligent in removing redundant lift infrastructure as upgrades are made, has launched an annual eco start-up prize for pioneering planet-saving projects such as recyclable skis, and is even hyper-aware of what its myriad Michelin-starred restaurants are serving their guests.
“It’s very important for us to demonstrate to our customers that we will not provide cherries from Venezuela or strawberries from South Africa and offer them the best produce of the region with a low impact of energy,” adds Delaruelle.
With more than 2000 acres of skiable slopes, 35 lifts and 200 runs,Whistler is Canada’s largest resort, but it wears its impact lightly.
The Fitzsimmons Creek hydro project, tapping the energy of the river tumbling down between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountain, creates enough electricity to power the lifts, operations facilities and snowmaking for the winter.
Whistler owner Vail Resorts has pledged to achieve a “net zero operating footprint” in terms of energy and waste across its resorts by 2030. According to its report, it is on track to hit its targets in waste management and forestry impact, even ahead of schedule.
Whistler has many local schemes, one of them being to reduce landfill waste 70% since 2000 by retro-fitted the food and beverage department.