Our Carbon Action Plan

Measure

We need to know where our emissions are coming from so we can understand how to reduce them. We track how much CO2/CO2e our operations as a company emit in kg on an annual basis. This includes an estimate from all in-resort transport, accommodation, waste, and food provisions.

You can read our latest climate progress report for the period of 1st June 2021 to 31st May 2022 here: AliKats Climate Report 2021 2022.

Alongside this, we also need to measure waste across the business and set targets to continue to reduce waste and divert from landfills and incinerators. In 2022 we managed to achieve zero food waste through extensive composting and permaculture practices, we also estimated that we have reduced our general waste by 50%, but we need to go further to find ways to reduce plastic and dirty waste that can’t be recycled.

2022/23 Pledge:

1. Continue to publish a transparent, carbon footprint analysis of all our operations and re-evaluate our goals annually. We will implement a monthly environmental accounting process, which means when each invoice hits our books, we account for it both financially and environmentally at the same time. This will give an up-to-date picture of our progress at any one point in time and will help us ensure our business is on track for low-carbon growth.
2. To continue to measure waste across the business as a means to maintain minimum waste production and identify ways to eliminate it further.

Reduce

The most crucial stage. We are continually searching for ways to reduce our carbon footprint across all areas of the business, whilst creating long term positive benefits for the environment and local community. Our new pledges for 2022/23 continue to work on reducing our Scope 1 direct emissions and Scope 2 owned emissions (purchased energy from a utility provider) whilst moving further into the reduction of our scope 3 emissions, specifically those associated with the businesses and partners that supply us and our guests with goods and services.

2022/23 Pledges:

1. Create incentive packages that help guests reduce the impact of their holiday and reward those who choose sustainable travel and holiday options, including:
   • opting out of having a hot tub
   • travelling to the resort by train
   • selecting a plant-based menu
2. Cut down the eco footprint of our hot tubs. There is no escaping that the heating and cleaning involved in maintaining year-round hot tubs in our chalets is energy and water intensive.  We’ve identified several ways to reduce this:
   • Cut down on the overall use of hot tubs through the introduction of an ‘opt out’ option for guests booking winter holidays, and an ‘opt in’ option for guests booking summer holidays. Reward guests who choose eco-friendly options with discounts or benefits.
   • Improve information in chalets to help guests reduce heat loss, keep tub water clean and avoid mid week water changes.
   • Introduce a fee for mid week water changes to encourage guests to look after the water, and specifically shower and remove sunscreen before entering the hot tub.
   • Improve drainage system to ensure dirty water is responsibly disposed off. In particular one of our chalets needs the drains improved so no dirty water escapes into the environment.
   • Investigate and install eco-friendly features to hot tubs, such as better hot tub lids, energy efficient pumps and filters, low energy LED lights, energy measurement devices.
3. Develop a framework to improve traceability and measure the impact of the food we purchase. This will involve:
   • Documenting our current purchasing activity
   • Assessing each food item on environmental, animal and human welfare standards.
   • The objective is to use this framework to make more sustainable purchasing decisions and lower the carbon footprint of our food production.
4. Cut the amount of meat on our catered menu by 10%. We will estimate the amount of meat served per person per week in grams and cut this down by 10% across our 2022-23 catered chalet menu.
5. Reduce waste and improve the recycling system in our self catered chalets by:
   • providing composting instructions and bins for guests to use
   • increasing the number of reusable shopping bags and food containers
   • making recycling instructions clearer
6. Review, upgrade and introduce (where not already in place) energy and water saving products in chalets (light sensors, reduced flow taps, rechargeable batteries, low-flush systems in toilets)
7. Cut down on the use of napkins and where used ensure they are of the compostable variety
8. Investigate and introduce sustainable ways to cool our chalets. So far we have concentrated on reducing the carbon emissions associated with heating our chalets, we now need to look at low impact ways to cool chalets in the increasingly hot summer months.
9. Increase our fleet of electric vehicles with the purchase of an electric mini-van for slope runs and general transport of guests around the resort.
10. Increase the sustainability of our procurement strategy by standardising a system across the business, which prioritises:
    • repairing goods (over buying new)
    • purchasing goods second-hand
    • buying from local businesses and services
    • purchasing from socially just and environmentally responsible businesses
    • This includes white goods, whereby the The Repairability Index – the French system which awards a score based on the ease of repairing electrical and electronic items – will be taken into consideration before purchasing.
11. Not to buy any goods from Amazon. Online shopping company Amazon’s climate emissions grew 19% in 2020 and are reported to be similar to Switzerland or Denmark’s. We want to avoid supporting the growth of this giant company, which is exploitative and monopolistic in nature and damaging to people, local economies and the environment.
12. Reduce the emissions relating to our suppliers and partners (sales agents, ski hire, airport transfers etc). This will involve requesting and assessing the carbon footprint of these organisations and supporting them in developing more sustainable operations, or in some cases seeking alternative providers.
13. Make our mountain holidays more accessible and inclusive by:
    • adding a chalet with disabled access to our portfolio to make sure people with disabilities can enjoy our holidays in summer and winter.
    • Creating partnerships with associations to enable us to offer affordable holidays to low income families
14. To avoid employees working long hours during peak holiday season. Capped working hours will be introduced to ensure employees do not work more than 45 hours per week during any week of the year. The structure and organisation of teams will be strengthen to provide the resource and support needed to make this work.
15. Uphold our commitment to reducing waste by:
    • Continuing extensive composting and permaculture practices to maintain our zero food waste across the business
    • Find further to ways reduce plastic and dirty waste that can’t be recycled

Remove

Our focus is to methodically and creatively strive for further CO2 reduction within our company and supply chain. However where we haven’t been able to reduce our emissions, we are investing in carbon reduction projects to absorb or remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

We are contributing to waste and CO2 reduction on a global scale by helping to fund the following credible climate organisations and projects:

Foundation GoodPlanet – a French non profit organisation running environmental and social field projects, including the construction and monitoring of biodigesters, solar cookers and improved stoves in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Insufficient access to clean energy causes 4 million deaths each year from indoor air pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels. (WHO, 2019). Read more about these important projects here.

Nu Cycle – The Nu Cycle system is designed to remove waste from the places where it actually ends up – landfills, waterways, and the ocean. Nu Cycle is utilising a decentralised network of waste conversion partner technologies that take in different kinds of waste and produce something of value. This is the waste-to-value process. Read more here.

As we do not book customer flights and travel to resort, we do not include them in our carbon emission calculations and they are, therefore, not offset by the company. However, we recognise that carbon emissions caused by travel, including travel to our chalets, have a huge impact. We will continue to promote train travel over flying, but recognise that this is not always convenient and that some guests will still require flights. Whilst we, along with local non-profit Montagne Vert and the wider Alpine tourism community, work on making train travel faster and more convenient, we also want to ensure the carbon emissions resulting from aircraft travel by our guests are measured and mitigated.

Pledge 2022/ 23:

1. To introduce a carbon offsetting initiative to our guests, which enables them to measure and mitigate the carbon produced by their transport to resort. By opting into this program our customers can rest assured that their contribution is invested in our carefully selected off-setting projects.
2. To continue to measure and mitigate our remaining carbon emissions through credible climate companies (as highlighted above), whilst ensuring our primary focus and creativity is carbon reduction.

Communicate

This final part of our action plan is all about communication and collaboration, as we aim for a unified response to the climate crisis across the ski, and wider tourism sector. It is about transparency and authenticity; sharing failings and celebrating victories; propelling positive change and not wasting valuable time – so we can make the progress that so urgently needs to be made.

2022-23 Pledges:

This final part of our action plan is all about communication and collaboration, as we aim for a unified response to the climate crisis across the ski, and wider tourism sector. It is about transparency and authenticity; sharing failings and celebrating victories; propelling positive change and not wasting valuable time – so we can make the progress that so urgently needs to be made.

1. Communicate the progress of our climate initiatives and ensure our plans are evolving continuously based on learning and sharing
2. Support and celebrate the green wins of organisations, partners and friends in the travel and mountain sports sector by sharing their stories on our channels
3. Maintain our commitment as a signatory to The Tourism Declares initiative – a collective movement to accelerate the decarbonisation of the travel and tourism industry
4. As founding members of the Conseil D’Administration, continue to champion the work of Montagne Verte, a non-profit association to develop solutions for the region of Morzine to reduce its environmental impact
5. You can find more information on our Climate Action Plan in our FAQs section