Sainte Foy green rating – Ski Club of Great Britain

Sainte Foy: green factor

ISO14001 approved:No

Is the resort ISO14001 approved?

ISO 14001 is a worldwide standard of environmental management for any organisation, created in 1996. Ski resorts on at least four continents are known to be working towards obtaining ISO 14001 certification or to have already achieved it. ISO 14001 is an environmental management system applying to those environmental issues which a ski resort business, or any company, has some control over and can be expected to influence if they want to.

The ISO 14001 standard helps any organisation to implement, maintain and improve an environmental management system; assure itself of its conformance with its own stated environmental policy and to demonstrate that it is conforming with those standards and any other environmental laws and regulations.

Recycling:Yes

Does the resort recycle?

Resorts increasingly offer recycling facilities to guests, either within their accommodation and/or at special recycling points, which are hopefully convenient.

As always there's a range of how far individual resorts go. Some go as far as looking to use waste to run their communal heating systems and others make targets to recycle 100% of all waste.

Green power user:Yes

Is the resort a green power user?

'Green' power (eco-friendly) typically means wind generated or other naturally produced energy such as solar cells. On the other hand, some fuel sources like bio diesel are less polluting than conventional fuels so could be considered a step in the right direction, if not the perfect answer.

Of course there is a great variation in how much (or how little!) a resort can do, from running a few snowmobiles on bio-diesel to having the entire resort operating on wind power or other renewable energies.

Traffic reduction:No

Does the resort have a traffic reduction policy?

Traffic reduction can take many forms. Several Swiss resorts and a few in other countries have banned cars altogether for decades. Some have never had cars on their streets.

Other approaches include pedestrianised centres and out-of-centre car parking with resort centre access only on foot or by public transport - hopefully, electrically powered buses. These, along with expensive and/or severely restricted resort centre parking, and an efficient free and cheap bus service, all help to reduce traffic problems and thus cut emissions.

Sewage properly managed:Yes

Does the resort have a waste reduction policy?

The influx of winter guests to ski areas tends to bring an influx of, what's politely termed 'waste water', to the mountains as thousands of guests use the toilets on the mountain and bathroom in their accommodation.

The most environmentally forward thinking ski areas are using techniques such as composting to reduce waste from mountain restaurants. In some areas purified wastewater is also being used for snowmaking, on the one hand an eco friendly measure as it recycles, on the other it might be argued that if water is needed for snowmaking in an area of marginal precipitation, their shouldn't be a ski area there.

Climate policy:No

Does the resort have a climate policy?

If a ski resort has a climate policy it means that the 'great and the good' in the resort have got together to work out a strategy to minimise the resort's impact on climate change and global warming. This can include many different initiatives such as recycling, communal heating, ensuring new buildings cause minimal environmental impact and so on. Most important is the ethos of the community to take the potential environmental impact of all resort aspects of life into consideration now and in the future.

Green building policy:Yes

Does the resort have a green building policy?

Ski resorts are increasingly looking at minimising the environmental impact of their construction projects, as well as the impact of newly erected buildings and other infrastructure.

Having a green building policy means resorts put environmental concerns at the top of the list when working on new projects. This can include a myriad of things from using helicopters to reduce the damage to surrounding land when building in sensitive areas, to using natural, local materials for building and looking for maximum insulation and minimum power requirements, ideally supplied in as eco-friendly a way as possible.

Major Initiatives

Action taken for the maintenance, protection and respect of the environment

Sainte Foy organises two citizens' days a year with the help of volunteers. These days, which consist of a major cleanup of the resort, are reinforced by education programs in the winter: "the mountain is not a dustbin" stickers on lift pylons; "swallow" (with the association Mountain riders); and by the installation of dustbins at the top of chairlifts.

The community of Sainte Foy respects the environment. Their three ski run grooming machines' hydraulics run on environmentally friendly vegetable oil and the engines meet the European anti-pollution norms

To compensate for those areas that have been cleared of vegetation for ski runs, the commune have decided to list the forests of Grand Bois and the Monal as protected forests. Skiing is prohibited in these forests.

For each new run, or new lift, compensatory measures must be taken by order of the public service.

In this way, the commune of Sainte Foy and the National Forest Office will, in 2007, complete the program of replanting begun in 2005. At the rate of 200 to 800 trees a year, there will be 3800 young evergreens growing around the slopes and runs.

The new Marquise chairlift was the subject of environmental impact studies on the fauna and flora.

Within the framework of the compensatory measures linked to the Marquise chairlift, the commune of Sainte Foy will construct a new alpine chalet and an impluvium (an artificial basin filled by rainwater to supply water for herds in the alpine meadows) in order to help maintain the local agricultural tradition. A large program of reforestation has also been undertaken (in addition to the 3800 plants mentioned above).

Actions to maintain historical buildings

Thanks to the work of the dynamic "Santaféraine" association for the restoration of the historical heritage of St Foy, several successful projects have been completed such as: the interior and exterior restoration of the chapels of Bonconseil (resort) and of Saint Claude in the historically classified village of the Monal; restoration of the Chapelle de la Roche in parallel with the repairs to the Roche trail carried out by the international association "Concordia"

The restoration of the chapel at le Miroir, which is a classified historic monument, will be the next project for the association.

Book

A new book on the natural history of Sainte Foy edited by the school of natural history of the Savoie, the Vanoise national park and the mayors office of Sainte Foy Tarentaise.
With its 5 valleys and an area of 27,000 acres the commune of Sainte Foy is so large that it is one of the rare communes that contains representative samples of all types of mountain habitat.

In fact we find in Sainte Foy: streams, lakes, coniferous forests, hay meadows, marsh land and alpine grassland, snow gulleys, scree slopes, moraines, rocky glaciers, rocks, cliffs, glaciers, and snowfields…

Each of these natural habitats shelters a specific set of fauna and flora. This wealth is developed in a new book dedicated to the natural history of Sainte Foy (collection) edited by the school of natural history of the Savoie, the Vanoise national park and the mayors office.

Other classified and special areas within the commune of Sainte Foy

Sainte Foy contains a historically listed village, a listed chapel, 2 protected forests, a zone "Natura 2000" that is in the process of being established, a zone ZNIEFF and ZICO, a part of the commune that is within the Vanoise National Park and 2 large hunting reserves (Bec Rouge / Grand folliet and Béranger)

Actions to preserve the way of life of Sainte Foy Tarentaise

In order to preserve the charm and character of the local architecture, the resort of Sainte Foy has mandated two charters:

In 1990, at the time of the creation of the resort the first set of architectural rules required the use of local materials: wood, lauze (local roof slate), stone; and for all large chalets or residences the number of floors was limited. In this way the buildings were built to fit harmoniously into the natural environment.

In the autumn of 2006: A rule concerning signs for all business owners was formalised (wooden signs only).

The new resort of Sainte Foy (1990) undertook its development with an overall plan for waste management within the resort (separate rubbish collection for recycling and the installation of large underground rubbish handling bags " meloks " for 2007).
Pedestrian traffic is also encouraged with good pavements, and by the requirement of covered parking for all residential buildings.

Since resorts are continuously increasing and improving their environmental practices, we update the Green Resort Guide throughout the year. If you have any information about new resort environmental policies/practices or anything that you think we may have missed, please email greenresortguide@skiclub.co.uk.

Beginners	Off piste	Families	Ski to door	Large ski area
Intermediates	Mountain restaurants	Non-skiers	Glacier	Modern lift system
Advanced	Luxury accommodation	Value for money	Cross country	No queues
Skiing for all standards	Eating out	Purpose-built convenience	Heliskiing
Moguls	Apres-ski	Snow-sure resorts	Picturesque
Snowboarding	Ski-and-shop	Romantic/charming	Traffic-free

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Sainte Foy