The snowsports industry has been taking steps in recent years to improve their environmental performance. This includes tour operators, retailers, manufacturers and resorts.

We have put together some guidelines for tour operators and for seasonal workers to offer some information on what they can do to try and do their bit to help the environment.

Educate employees about green practices

• Train employees so that they can communicate green practices to guests in a subtle and down-to-earth manor, encouraging them to assist the tour operators’ environmental policies.

Educate guests about green practices

• Include information on the green practices of both the tour operator and the resorts in brochures and on the websites to raise customers’ awareness of the issues.
• Further publicise these practices in-resort through posters and information leaflets, as well as information from reps.
• Put stickers and notices by taps, doors and light switches etc reminding guests to turn off and save energy and water.

Promote use of Public Transport

• Make clients aware of all the options on how to get to a resort, making it as easy as possible for them to travel by train rather than focussing attention on air travel.
• In resort, minimise the use of cars and vans, using public transport and car pooling as much as possible, for both employees and guests.
• Switch company vehicles to alternative energy and energy efficient models.

Promote Carbon Offsetting to guests

• Automatically include carbon offsetting in the holiday price, with an option to opt-out if desired. This is likely to receive a higher number of offsets than the reverse psychology of an opt-in option.
• Include a carbon calculator in the holiday booking, so that the estimated emissions produced per person during the holiday, including transport and accommodation, are automatically calculated and displayed during the booking stage. Link this directly to a carbon offsetting service.
• Offset all emissions produced by staff.

Increase energy efficiency of the accommodations

• Turn down the thermostat. If clients are walking around in t-shirts or need to open their windows at night because the rooms are too warm, you are wasting energy, money and also heating the snow outside.
• Heating water uses up a huge amount of energy, so don’t heat it to excessive temperatures. It should not be necessary to add cold water when washing hands etc., if it is, then turn down the thermostat a couple of degrees.
• Install energy efficient light bulbs throughout your facilities and ensure that light switches are conveniently located (i.e. by the door rather than just on the lamp itself).

Encourage the resorts to adopt environmental policies

• Actively persuade the resorts you invest in to adopt comprehensive environmental policies in order to improve their public profile, by being aware of their developments and giving constructive feedback as to how they can maximise sustainability.
• Encourage guests to do the same by including environmental performance in feedback forms.

Buy local produce

• Offer guests the local experience by using locally sourced foods and products, thus supporting the local economy and culture and reducing food miles at the same time as enhancing their holiday experience.

Educate Guests about green practices

• Use subtle communication to advocate green practices to guests without preaching.
• Make sure guests are aware of the fragility of the mountain environment; relating the threat of climate change to the sport they clearly love may make them take it more seriously.
• Make sure to explain the reasoning behind the tour operators green policies, providing an indirect means of education.
• Ensure that any literature that the tour operator provides covering environmental issues is readily available.

Recycle as much waste as possible

• Make guests aware of what can be recycled by putting posters by the recycling bins.
• Make recycling as simple as possible for the guests by having bins throughout the accommodation.

Turn down the thermostat

• Chalets and hotels in ski resorts are often unnecessarily warm, meaning that guests walk around in ‘summer clothes’ and sleep with their windows open. This is clearly ridiculous as it uses excessive energy; guests should not be upset about having to dress in warm clothes whilst in a ski resort!

Minimise water use

• Ask guests to keep bath robes and towels to cut water and energy use in washing them every day (and save you time!).
• If water-efficient toilets are not already in use, place a 1 litre plastic bottle filled with water in the cistern in order to displace and thus conserve water. Make sure it is not obstructing the flush mechanism.
• Wash up efficiently in the kitchen: if there is a dishwasher, always wait until it is full before using, and if washing up by hand, always run a bowl of water rather than rinsing under the running tap.

Don’t rely on the car

• We all know walking is good exercise and loosens up the muscles after a hard day on the hill. High traffic levels can really ruin the atmosphere of a resort, as well as emitting harmful greenhouse gasses, so try to get by without a car.
• Bus services in most ski resorts are very regular and often free, sometimes even pretty sociable too!
• When it is necessary to drive, try to share lifts with other staff members or other chalets, thus making the trip more fun, saving money, reducing traffic in the resort and cutting fuel consumption.

Avoid excessive packaging

• Shopping selectively, avoiding anything with excessive packaging.
• Bottled water is the prime example of unnecessary consumerism and packaging – tap water in mountain regions is usually much purer and nicer tasting than bottled water, which may have been shipped long distances and so using needless energy. Empty bottles also add to the waste problem, with plastic bottles taking up to 1,000 years to degrade. So don’t buy bottled water!
• Buy in bulk where possible, saving you time and reducing packaging.
• Take backpacks, shopping bags or boxes when doing your super market shop instead of plastic bags, which take 500 years to degrade, and often break anyway!

Encourage the tour operator and resort to do more

• Don’t be scared to voice your opinion. If you notice something that the company or resort is doing that seems unnecessarily wasteful or harmful to the environment, ask them if they are aware of it.
• If they fail to change their ways, see if other employees agree with you and gather more support so that you can raise the issue again.
• There are small scale environmental campaign groups in many ski resorts, especially in North America. Seek them out and see what you can do.