We want to be here until the next ice age so we do our best to ensure this.
Join us & our partners conscientiously saving snowsports & our planet for the future
As a business that could be greatly affected by climate change, taking precautions is at the forefront of our decisions and the background of our holidays. Hopefully we think about it so that you don’t have to, you are on holiday after all.
A top-down approach to climate change starting with the highest carbon contributors down to the details
Source: French UK Government documentation “Guide sectorie montagne 2022”
Image machine-translated from French by Google
WHERE WE WANT TO BE IN 3-5 YEARS
Our audacious goal: to have the smallest carbon footprint of any accommodation provider in the Alps.
By then, we dream of achieving a few milestones:
- Provide clean fuel transfers from arrival to accommodation.
- A portfolio of chalets located within walking distance of the pistes/lifts/regular public transport.
- Provide properties that have been positively rated and developed for energy efficiency.
- Delicious meals prepared from ingredients where environmental impact is a prime consideration.
TRANSPORT 52%
Chalet locations
We favour locations close to the lift, ideally walkable or on the main bus line. All in order to reduce our in-resort emissions. Where specified we do offer minibus pick-ups for the short 500-600m. We request our drivers, if idling for more than 2 minutes, to stop the engine (when practically possible and not to guests’ discomfort).
In-resort logistics.
This is something we have really improved on. At one point the resort manager’s role was one of running about delivering cots, ingredients, linen, and team requests however considerate planning and organisation has this now at a minimum, a real win for all!
Travel
A return journey from for example London to Geneva is 7 kg of carbon when taking the train vs 344kg of carbon when flying. For our guests, we support the Alpine Express train project whereby those arriving by train get so many discounts that it both costs them less and the environment less. As a company, we offer all of our team the option to travel to and from the resort by train. Of note, we commend anyone who drives to the Alps with passengers. 4 people travelling return by car emits 8o kg of carbon, 4 x less than flying.
For the most up to data see www.monimpacttransport.fr
COLLECTIVE INFRASTRUCTURE
17%
Chalets powered by renewable energy. 50% of our properties and our French office is powered 100% by regional hydropower, supplied by Ilek. By the end of the year we are hoping that 100% of our properties will have electricity from renewable sources, landlords pending. 1 of our chalets still have oil boilers however going forward we will only look to add properties powered by renewable sources.
EQUIPMENT 16%
The diagram at the top refers to ski equipment, to write about what is relevant to what we provide. When we have to renew white goods we choose machinery rated at a minimum A for efficiency. Our linen, Mitre >>has the Royal Warrant for fabric meaning they are the Queen’s suppliers. Mitre is “committed to continuously working to reduce or mitigate any negative environmental impacts”. They work to reduce energy, water, packaging, and other raw materials from their products. This makes them the obvious choice to supply our guests with Royal warrant linen that will help everyone sleep better at night. Our uniform is part made from recycled materials and part made from material that is both fair trade and organic so when it decomposes it is beneficial to our soil. Promotional material increasingly we use less promotional material as by its nature it tends to be mass-produced and of a short life however, if we do we use Glow-Easy >> the only supplier that we could find that is like-minded. LED bulbs succeed traditional bulbs in all our properties when their time comes to an end.
MENU 8%
High Welfare meat
From organic mince and superior sausages for kids. We work with a local butcher to fulfil our adults menu too. The butcher’s range includes beef, pork, chicken and lamb!
Offer a plant based menu
A menu built from the ground up. Complete meals with alternative sources of protein. Our plant-based menus are every bit as good if not better than our meat menu so all our guests feel equally looked after. We offer guests a plant-based night in advance of booking should they wish to try.
Single use plastic free menu night
Historically we had a single-use plastic-free night in our catered chalets however the French president has now increased the plastics that can be recycled making almost all of our nights single use plastic free! Whoop! So we have now screened our products to try and replace plastic packaging with cardboard where there is a quality alternative.
Plastic Free Menu >>
Eliminating palm oil
It would not make too much sense if, on one hand, we support David Attenborough’s choice of charity – CoolEarth >> to protect the rainforest and then on the other invest in ingredients that came from areas created by deforesting the rainforest. Given the choice, if there is a palm oil-free alternative that is the ingredient we choose. Of course, it is not just palm oil that is accredited to deforestation there are many other products too however of them palm oil is made the most visible by packaging and labelling.
Local Ingredients
There is not much ‘in season’ in winter!. Colder temperatures halt growth, frozen ground makes it harder to harvest crops over winter however we can always rely as our ancestors did on dry store goods. For example take an 18th-century, still popular, dish such as tartiflette you can see how it is practically all dry store goods – potatoes, cheese, cured meat, onions and more recently cream and this is what we use…
- Cheese. Our region is famous for its cheese. We are fortunate to have ‘appellation controlled’ cheese within our ski area! Appellation controlled is a certification of authenticity relating to the location and topology that contribute to the uniqueness of a product. Abondance – 25km from us has produced it’s namesake cheese since the 14th century. Abondance is a hard cheese nutty cheese that matures for a minimum of 100 days. Reblochon from our region also has an appellation award and has also stood the test of time also being produced since the 14th century. It has a great story to it however we will let our chalet team tell you all about it!
- Eggs. When not using label rouge eggs as a stand-alone ingredient we use eggs from Marin 30 km away, it is a nice farm overlooking the lac leman (lake Geneva). For our summer menu we are able to use eggs from our Skiology chickens for example in our homemade mayonnaise in our coleslaw.
- Milk when milk is not a stand-alone ingredient we use a brand call ‘lait d’ici’ meaning milk from here.
- Honey. We need bees! Bee numbers are in decline worldwide as we remove their food source, repurposing wildflower meadows. Ironically we need bees to make more food for us, a lot of our food sources can’t reproduce without them taking pollen from one plant to the next, no bees no more potatoes, no more tartiflette! (there are 100s of other examples). Mass farming of bees sometimes takes all their honey – their home, their food, and ultimately their life support system.
This is all part of our carbon-conscience menu >>
Wine
Our region is not world-renowned for its wine however our country is. Enter Paul Boyer at the forefront of organic wine from full moon harvests to local sheep ‘cutting’ the grass, to EpiPens for snake attacks. Paul’s natural wines come from organic and/or sustainable viticulture. Paul Boyer produces next-level‘ all-natural wine’. Organic wine is produced with organically grown grapes. After that producers may process as they wish. Paul’s mission is to produce wines without additives that truly express the character of the grape and the unique qualities of the terroir. This way all you taste is the grape, not the additives. Our in-chalet guides take a deeper dive into Paul’s wine.
TOURIST LODGING 4%
We have already covered how our proximity makes us different, our choice in using renewable energy, our menu choices, our equipment. In addition, you will meet our team who of course are well versed in reducing our footprint. For example, our team airing your 22 degree room when you are out and it is -5 outside may seem like a waste of energy however we all love fresh air and as a bonus cold fresh air heats quicker than saturated warm humid air. We have a guide so our self-catered guests can contribute too. If you come and stay catered in the summer your waste will become part of our compost and go towards growing apples for chutney for our cheese board in the winter. We reduce, we reuse and we even wrote the local advice on recycling. Check out the link below
Recycling in the French Alps
SKI DOMAIN 3%
Morzine / Avoriaz! Awarded, ‘Flocon Vert’ for sustainable mountain tourism and a commitment to sustainable development. Based on 20 criteria divided into four themes: local economy, social & cultural, governance & destination, and environment & natural resources. One of only 8 resorts to win this award so far!
In addition, for our British clients, Morzine requires less travel to get here than other sizable resorts. We believe Morzine to be both the closest sizable resort to Britain and with one of the shortest airport transfer distances too.
THE DETAILS
Since snow is mostly water it makes sense for us to help protect our water system. All our taps have aerators. We choose organic cleaning products and are a brand ambassador for the Royal Warranted Delphis Eco, you can find us on their glass cleaning bottle in Waitrose. Delphis have an inspirational goal of 100% sustainability across the business, from plant-based cleaning products to recyclable and biodegradable packaging. The products are also animal cruelty-free. Our toiletries are also all organic. Read on in our leaps section below.
Systemic
Arguably this could be at the top of this page since ‘70% of carbon emissions come from just 100 companies’ . This is the ‘it is ‘not us it is them approach’. Indeed the term climate change was brought into most of our lives by one of the aforementioned companies to get you to look at your feet, so they could continue with their 70% while you were focusing elsewhere. On a governmental level, locally we support ‘Montagne Verte’, an agent for change within our ski resort and at a National and International level, we support Greenpeace.
Me!
As the adage goes, the leader is as the company is. I try to lead by a good example with a goal of being accountable for 5 tonnes of carbon per year. This involves all sorts of transport, dietary and purchasing decisions. My wife might say that I am a little extremist however I would say I am simply risk-averse 🙂
This year’s leap
As years go by we get ever closer to our vision as the top page and our list gets shorter! This year with our new chalet we were almost there however the car industry is not quite there yet in terms of manufacturing long wheel base electric minibuses so watch this space for next year where we hope we will have achieved our goal!
- Financially forecast to acquire an eclectic minibus for winter 2024-2025.
- Launched a brand new catered chalet (Les Meunier) which is rated A for efficiency. Constructed by Ecsus, constructors of the most environmentally friendly chalets in the Alps.
- in the process of converting 75% of our catered properties to run on renewable power.
- Partnered with Patagonia creator of sustainable clothes and so much.
- Trialling working with local butcher shorting our meat supply chain.
- Removed some of the more environmentally impactful proteins from our menu.
- Signed up to work with a local bio collection scheme to compost any of our minimised food waste.
Previous years' leaps
2022 – 2023
- We have massively updated our environment page and created an environmental impact guide for our self-catered guests.
- Joined Tourism Declares Climate Emergency.
- Will be weighing our waste – What gets measured gets managed and this way we have accountability for the waste we produce so we can plan how to reduce it.
- Added the carbon conscience lense to our menu.
- Reviewed the protein content of our plant-based to make sure guests are fuller for longer.
- Hired 1 x hybrid vehicle for the use of the management team.
- Changed energy suppliers to renewable energy for even more of our properties.
- Invested further in reusable coverings to further limit the use of cling film, tin foil and baking paper.
- Updated checklists to reduce the frequency of replacement of bin bags.
- Started to phase out promotional items.
- Introduced composting to our summer chalets.
- Added Greenpeace to charities that we support.
2021 – 2022
- Introducing a single-use plastic-free kitchen night
- Resourced our entire food supply chain to minimise single-use plastic
- Offering a meat-free night in our catered chalets and give savings to CoolEarth
- Introducing ‘Label Rouge’ chicken and eggs to our catered chalets! ‘Label Rouge’ farming is farming how it used to be. The chickens roam free outside amongst the trees, have a long humane life and are cereal fed giving the meat a unique tenderness.
- Trial making yoghurt because here yoghurt pots can not be recycled.
- Trial using local farm deliveries for winter vegetables such as carrots, radishes, cabbages and stored fruit like apples and pears.
- **coming 2023* Weigh waste and compete between chalets to reduce food waste.
- Push alternative travel options such as driving
- More digital documents within in Skiology, less paper!
- Raise double the funds for our charities.
- Upcycling any plexiglass that needs to be used to meet kitchen or transport regulations into greenhouses.
2020 – 2021
- 30% packaging reduction through menu optimisation
- Switching energy suppliers for clean energy suppliers in 25% of our chalets
- Incentive for guests travelling by train
- Be a leading part in a local demand for public compost bins for creating bio fuel
- Optimising shopping day to prevent unnecessary trips
- Replace clingfilm with reusable silicone lids
- Offer sustainable alternatives to in demand brands e.g offering Nutella and a sustainable alternative chocolate spread.
- Work with laundry service to remove plastic wrapping from deliveries
- Increase use of washable/reusable cloths for cleaning instead of paper towels
- Use tap aerators
- Bulk purchase bio shampoo & shower gel to refill smaller usable bottles
- Towel change charge to be donated to CoolEarth
- Create a little eco-army: ask suppliers what they are going to pledge to join our force for change
OUR SUPPORTED CHARITIES
MSIZI AFRICA
Msizi Africa is a charity which provide meals, clothing and homes to some of the most vulnerable people in the world. Thanks to their efforts they have kept children in education, fed the needy during crises, and housed orphans who have lost their parents in a country which suffers with poverty. In the spirit of teaching a person to fish Msizi Africa will be sustainable 2023!
HOW DO WE DO IT?
We provide our chalet team with a generous food budget which gets spent during their weekly shop. When they (and they usually do) under spend on this budget, that saving goes into our donation pot for Msizi Africa. It’s as simple as that. All without any detriment to our guests’ experience of staying with a foodie chalet company.
Through our partnership with CoolEarth we have been able to protect:
1,000,000
square feet of rainforest
which is
12,872
trees
this amounts to:
13,945
Tonnes of CO2 stored
8,157
types of animals sheltered
2,152
indigenous people supported
19
endangered species protected
COOLEARTH
CoolEarth was our second sustainability partner. When the Director came to stay with us we learnt all about the effectiveness of protecting existing rain-forest rather than planting new trees. By protecting huge existing trees, photosynthesis doesn’t have to wait for a new tree to grow. They operate in equatorial rain-forest where, due to their proximity to the sun, they are able to remove more carbon. These lands are also home to indigenous tribes who they work with paying them a fair wage.
HOW DO WE DO IT?
After meeting the Director we began donating a portion of our energy bills to the cause. As our mission is to ‘reduce’ we didn’t want that to lessen our contribution to them. We now calculate our carbon emissions and offset that cost 10x in the form of a donation to our partners at CoolEarth.
Did you know our 1mil sq ft of rainforest equals to ~16 football pitches?
Montagne Verte
Because charity begins at home.
Montagne Verte is a local grassroots initiative who provide greener solutions for businesses and residents to minimise their environmental impact. From advice, to pledges, to raising fund for a local sustainability officer they are on board with it all and have teamed up with through thier shared understanding that the mountain sports industry is far from environmentally friendly so we have a duty to minimise our impact for the longevity of the environment we love.
OUR PARTNERS FOR THE JOURNEY
Patagonia
We are phasing in uniforms from Patagonia.
Patagonia from our point of view is both the pinnacle and pioneer of environmental responsibility. Not just a clothing company; it’s also an advocate for environmental causes. Clothes are made of well-sourced materials such as organic cotton, recycled polyester, and wool. Created under fair labour practices. Patagonia clothes are built to last, purchasers are encouraged to repair rather than replace with repair services offered.
PAUL BOYER WINES
We offer beyond organic wine as our house wine. It costs us a bit more, however, costs the earth less.
Paul Boyer’s wine is so naturally produced that to call it organic is to downgrade it. The hard work they do goes beyond organic – from full moon harvests, to local sheep ‘cutting’ the grass, to EpiPens for snake attacks. To us, Paul’s wine is a perfect match. It’s also well known for not giving headaches when that nightcap went down a little too easy.
DELPHIS ECO
An environmentally friendly cleaning product company with The Royal Warrant for their practices. Snow is water so it makes sense for us to look after our water cycle. 90% of the cleaning products that we use are supplied by Delphis Eco.
They have an inspirational goal of 100% sustainability across the business, from plant-based cleaning products to recyclable and biodegradable packaging. The products are cruelty free meaning no animals were harmed in the making of their products.
MITRE LINEN
Mitre Linen has the Royal Warrant for fabric and linen which means they are the Queen’s suppliers. Mitre is “committed to continuously working to reduce or mitigate any negative environmental impacts”. They work to reduce energy, water, packaging, and other raw materials from their products. This makes them the obvious choice for to supply our chalets with Royal warrant linen that will help everyone sleep better at night.
ÊTRE COSMÉTIQUE BIO ORGANIC
Certification by ECOCERT. Over 98% ingredients of natural origin. No chemical perfume. No colouring agent. No animal-derived ingredients. Not tested on animals. Ingredients from Bio farms!
SOLVE
The pixel pushers at Solve are committed to giving back to our planet. Their servers run on 100% renewable, sustainable energy-based, whilst delivering super-fast speeds. Solve are proud to plant at least one tree a day, and making Web Design and SEO as eco and sustainable as possible
CREVASSE CLOTHING
You don’t need to buy top brands like Volcom and Dakine, you can rent them! Crevasse clothing enables clothes that are often worn for only one week of the year to get multiple uses and you to stay at the front of fashion without having to re-buy annually. The fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world, responsible for 10% of the world’s carbon footprint so this is a great way to do your bit.
ECSUS DESIGN
ECSUS Design specialise in low environmental impact construction using SIPs (Structurally Insulated Panels) and timber frame. We engineer properties to suit all tastes, from modern to traditional, that are healthy for the environment and healthy to live in. The airtight, highly insulated SIP shell, combined with clever ventilation and heat recovery systems, ensure fresh air is always circulating and the temperature consistent while using minimal energy. All our fully managed projects gain AA energy certification and have very low heating bill.
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE GENERATIONS
As well as what we do for our environment we also believe in investing in the longevity of the sport we all love.
What do we mean?
It’s not enough for the current generations booking with us to love the sport, we want the next generation of skiers and boarders to love it too. If children don’t enjoy mountain sports, no future in mountain sports. To encourage families to come out to the mountains all together we have an infants go free policy to get them on their first holiday.
