Zermatt

Zermatt: green factor

• Introduction to green factor assessments
• Environmental overview of resorts
• Environmental initiatives

Major Initiatives

Mission Statement

"Our guests will be happy because we welcome them warmly, with a sense of humour and an awareness of quality. We will be happy because we place great value on team spirit beyond doing our job. The people around us will be happy because they are pleased with the results of our work and feel they are involved in it. We will look after the environment."

Sustainable Slopes

In 2002, Zermatt's lift company created a working party composed of environmental and planning firms to work out an overall plan for "Sustainable skiing areas around Zermatt" which would highlight areas of conflict between construction projects and nature. The working party's remit has subsequently been expanded to encompass supervising environmental works, advising on all aspects of the environment, and preparing environmental reports on planning applications, etc.

In construction projects - and on average one transport installation has to be replaced each year - account is taken of ecologically valuable areas when selecting routes for lines.

In its programme of restoration of former environmental damage, Zermatt Bergbahnen AG is setting a standard for the whole of Switzerland. It also endeavours to collaborate with environmental associations at all times and in a transparent manner.

Europe’s First Restaurant with the Minergie P Standard of environmental excellence

‘The glacier restaurant’ which was built at 3883m above Zermatt in 2008 was Europe’s first restaurant with the Minergie P Standard of environmental excellence (the highest energy standard). A special sewage treatment facility, the highest in the Alps, will ensure waste water is purified in an environmentally friendly way.

The entire front of the building will be equipped with solar panels, which, at this altitude, generate almost twice as much energy as systems with a similar surface area in lowlands areas. Solar energy will be stored and used for heating the building, meaning no external energy supply will be required.

The target for the building was to close all material usage cycles, reusing whenever possible and reduce loss to a minimum. The energy supply will be provided via the photovoltaic facility which is integrated into the façade. As the main façade is positioned in a southerly facing direction with an angle of inclination of approximately 70°, the facility can achieve a high yield. Photovoltaic facilities in high alpine regions harvest considerably more electricity than similar facilities at lower altitudes due to the clear air and reflection of the environment (snow). In order to further increase the energy yield, the solar façade has been equipped with rear ventilation. The cold surrounding air is collected from the access tunnel and directed towards the facades rear ventilation system. This cools the solar façade, which has a positive effect on the device’s effectiveness whilst warming the surround air. This warmed air is fed into the ventilation system of the restaurant and kitchen and therefore covers a part of the building’s heating energy requirements.

The generous windows in combination with the building’s good insulation allow the use of passive solar benefits. The ventilation system recycles the solar energy hitting the façade and circulates this through the entire building. With the help of waste heat recovery methods, these thermal gains are also used to preheat the cold outside air. The passive energy generation and the heat produced by the guests cover a large part of room heating requirements.

The remaining heating energy, which cannot be covered by either the solar façade or passive energy generation, is provided using heat pumps. The heat pumps make use of the remaining thermal capacity of the air discharged from the ventilation system. The air, which is released back into the environment, is therefore in the same condition as it was when it left the access tunnels and thus the material cycle is closed.

The electrical energy required for the building technology, i.e. the warm air pumps, ventilators, hot water pumps etc., is provided by means of the photovoltaic facility which is integrated in the façade.
The photovoltaic facility uses the existing electricity network of the mountain cableway as a repository and also feeds overproduction into this network. If the photovoltaic facility cannot produce enough electricity, on cloudy days or during the night for example, the previous overproduction, which was fed into the mountain cableway network, can be used – the annual balance has shown that the photovoltaic facility produces more energy than is used by the building technology.

A sewage treatment facility has been in use since 2 years on the Hohtälli. It has proved to be so successful that the same system will now also be used at the Matterhorn glacier paradise. This will be the highest sewage treatment facility in the world!

Drinking water has to be transported from Trockener Steg via the cable car. It therefore goes without saying that this resource is handled carefully and also reused. If drinking water is used in the kitchen area, for washing hands or for taking a shower, this water is collected and purified using a microbiological treatment facility. The purified grey water can now be used for flushing the toilets.
Surplus waste water is cleaned to “bathing water quality” and then fed back into the environment’s natural water cycle.

The remaining solids are collected in separate containers and transported into the valley via the cableway. This naturally inert material is passed on to the Zermatt ARA to enable it to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner – the material cycle is also closed here.
Hot water is prepared in the same way as the heating energy, via the heat pumps which use the air discharged from the ventilation system. The necessary electrical energy for the warm air pumps is also generated by the photovoltaic facility which is integrated in the façade.

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.

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