All aboard! AliKats helps you ski greener with train travel and more…

The headlines about climate change are more than upsetting at the moment. One good thing is, most people who love the mountains are conscientious about the environment and keen to do as much as they can to protect it. This effort is absolutely crucial, now more than ever, in protecting our beautiful mountain spaces for our future generations to come.

Little by little, since we started the company in 2011, we’ve been finding ways to become more environmentally friendly. Now, for the first time ever, AliKats has an Environmental Policy to help communicate our eco ambitions and foster collaboration with guests and partners. To stay on track we’ve created pledges, such as reducing our combined carbon footprint by making train travel more accessible to our customers. Please read on to find out more and support us in our efforts!

Choose train over plane

‘On the Snow’ website, wrote that 73% of an average ski resort’s carbon footprint is created by a visitor’s mode of transport, while two-per-cent of emissions come from lift services and pistes. However you look at it, hitting the slopes can be argued to be the most carbon-intensive outdoor sport.

Morzine doesn’t have a railway station which makes it tricky to get to by train. To solve the question of how you get to resort from Geneva train station, we’ve partnered with our preferred transfer company Skiidy Gonzales to offer free private transfers (usually priced at £175 or more) to our chalets for groups of six guests or more.

Train tickets are now on sale for December 2018 for the six-and-a-half hour train ride to reach Geneva from London St Pancras.

Stay hydrated with our re-usable water pouches

Our reusable water pouches, which are free to all guests who stay with us, are made from high grade PVC, hold 400 ml of water, fold away when empty and come with a carabiner, allowing you to clip it on to you backpack or belt loop. They are also highly functional in everyday life and can be used back home.

Eat greener

Monday has long been a meat free day across AliKats’ chalets. Guests are able to opt-in or out of this meal or even go completely meat free for the whole week with Kat’s delicious vegetarian menu. In addition to this, we make sure all the food purchased has travelled minimal food miles, which is helped by buying local produce and shopping for food that is in season.

Reducing plastics

Our pledge is to reduce, reuse or recycle plastic as much as possible. We buy organic cleaning products in bulk and refill existing containers, and purchase food with minimal packaging or having it delivered in reusable crates. This season we will also be replacing plastic toothbrushes with bamboo versions (for guests that have forgotten to bring their own) and substituting all plastic washing-up brushes with ones made of natural materials.

Waste not, want not

As well as recycling glass, plastic, cardboard and tin wherever possible we are committed to reducing food wastage. We compost all our fruit and vegetables from our central kitchen. Our pledge is to extend this effort and do this for all our catered chalets by 2019.

We have sourced an ethical, fairtrade and organic certified clothing supplier to supply our staff with uniforms. Our pledge is to provide eco-friendly and ethically manufactured uniforms for our whole team.

Watch this space as our green ambitions unfold! If you are a company or person that wants to help, please get in touch.