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 2022 to 31st May 2023 here: AliKats Climate Report 2022 20223.

Alongside this, we also need to measure waste across the business and find ways 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. We will 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 2023/24 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.

2023/24 Pledges:

1. Maintain and promote 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 are reducing this with the following methods:
   • Cut down on the overall use of hot tubs through our Responsible Hot Tub Initiative, which provides winter guests with an ‘opt out’ option, and summer guests with an ‘opt in’ option. Guests receive £200 off the cost off their holiday for not using a hot tub.
   • Communicating the affects of hot tub use on the environment and the results of our efforts to reduce this.
   • Improving information in chalets to help guests reduce heat loss, keep tub water clean and avoid mid week water changes.
3. Increase the use of solar energy across our business and valley. We have found a solar partner and have recently installed Solar panels on our house. We were effectively a pilot phase for the valley as a whole and through Montagne Verte we are sharing this information to help members and businesses arrange installation.
4. Build renewable energy for heating (and electricity) into every new chalet contract (our properties are leased). Through a radical system of eliminating oil-fired heaters and introducing air-source heat pumps, currently 90% of our chalets are heated through renewable energy.
5. Keep meat consumption to a minimum.  In 2022 our amazing chefs achieved a 26% reduction in overall meat purchased by smart and creative methods to cut down on the amount of meat served in the chalets. Now all starters are vegetarian and only four of the 15 courses served on our main menu contain meat. Where we do have meat on the menu, it is locally, ethically and sustainably produced. We couldn’t be happier with this result, and our food continues to get 5-star reviews, so we will continue with this for 2023/24.
6. Improve the composting and recycling system in our self catered chalets by ensuring every chalet has composting bins and improved instructions on recycling and composting.
7. 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.
8. Improve sustainability information across our chalets to make signage more noticeable and compelling to encourage planet considerate behaviour such as turning off lights, taking the bus, recycling rubbish etc.
9. Repair items, prolong the life of goods and upcycle materials as much as possible. We now have a full-time maintenance worker who overseas the maintenance of our properties and adopts sustainable values as best practice. Over the coming year we will strengthen this approach.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.
10. In 2022 we made an 85% reduction on expenditure with 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.
11. Support our suppliers and partners in their environmental goals to reduce emissions and environmental impactWe believe that measuring carbon impact must become the norm for every organisation and we want to support our suppliers to help them reach their environmental goals. Areas we have identified are supporting in the creation of carbon plans and the move to clean energy.
12. Uphold our commitment to zero food waste by continuing extensive composting and permaculture practices to maintain zero food waste across the business

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.

Pledge 2023/ 24:

13. To continue our carbon neutrality transport contribution to enable guests 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.
14. 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.

2023-24 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.

15. Communicate the progress of our climate initiatives and ensure our plans are evolving continuously based on learning and sharing, this involves sharing best practice examples that can be adopted by individuals and businesses.

16. Support and celebrate the green wins of organisations, partners and friends in the travel and mountain sports sector by sharing their products and stories on our channels.

You can find more information on our Climate Action Plan in our FAQs section