Green ski resort anyone?
22nd October 2009
It looks like we might be ordering tartiflette and Genepi this year, rather than spaghetti and goulash.
Thanks to the work of Patrick Thorne at saveoursnow.com, 263 of the world's resorts have been audited on a number of environmental criteria such as green energy use, waste reduction and recycling, sewage handling, traffic reduction measures and overall climate policy, in order to be given an overall ranking.
It throws up some interesting results, and helps cut the green from the green-washed. The first thing you notice is that there are a high proportion of French, Austrian and Swiss resorts at the top of the list. Good news for Europeans looking for a ski holiday this winter. Likewise for our friends in North America, there are a few excellent resorts which are paying more than lip service to green issues.
What is also very noticeable is just how many Italian resorts are at the bottom of the list. It might be time to send them a message that more needs to be done. The Bulgarian and other Eastern European resorts also do not fare too well, which is a bit of a blow to those looking for the cheapest of cheap ski holidays. There have also been reports of Bulgarian resorts pushing ahead with expansion plans that go against national park and UNESCO world heritage legislation. The EC and UNESCO are currently looking into this, but for now you certainly won’t find any Bulgarian resorts on muchbetteradventures.com.
Check out the guide to the muchbetter resorts we have just put up in the Ski and Snowboarding guide > 'where and when to go'. We won’t pretend that this is a definitive guide to green resorts, but it is a good start to help you decide where to put your hard earned money this winter.
It won’t be long before we have a fantastic range of muchbetter ski accommodation and ski packages to choose from either, so keep an eye on out. Wherever you go, getting there will have more environmental impact than the rest of your week, so be sure to choose the better option on that front too. You will find booking resources and info in the get there section.
Of course to truly get out in the fresh snow without any nagging guilt you need to give ski touring a go!
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