Cetursa Sierra Nevada commissions a study to reduce the carbon footprint in the facilities of the ski resort

Cetursa Sierra Nevada has commissioned a study for the calculation and reduction of the carbon footprint at the Sierra Nevada winter resort facility, as a central part of the 2020-30 Strategic Plan of the Granada ski and mountain center. The study, with an implementation period of 3 months, will audit the relevant greenhouse gas emission points at nearly 130 Cetursa Sierra Nevada facilities between buildings (12), ski lifts (16), footpathic machines (25), snowmobiles (23) company vehicles (50). 

The audit of the carbon footprint not only continues the study of energy efficiency in operation in the ski resort since the first months of 2019, but will be able to incorporate its conclusions to better define its conclusions and final recommendations.

The study, by which Cetursa Sierra Nevada aspires to be registered in the state carbon footprint register created by Royal Decree 163/2014, of March 14, will focus on the emission records for the 2018/19 season. Once calculated or quantified, the relevant points can be identified and thereby defined targets to effectively reduce greenhouse gases.

To this end, Cetursa Sierra Nevada provides the environmental auditor with the so-called "Scopes 1 and 2" which, in the case of the ski and mountain resort,   correspond to the fleet of vehicles and facilities used for the exercise of the activity (taking into account the life cycle of each of them and their uniqueness), as well as the office buildings, hotels, restaurants and workshops.

According to the contracting company, Omawa Huella Ecológica S.L., Cetursa is a pioneer in Spain, as the carbon footprint of any ski resort is not yet known, as well as the first to apply for registration in the National Carbon Footprint Registry of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.

Moreover, the station works on other lines reducing the environmental impact of its activity. Thus, Cetursa, in the 2030 horizon, aims to reduce emissions, waste in landfills, the impact on habitat - by replanting or restoring the area displaced by the operations of the station from 2021 - and to achieve a significant decrease in energy consumption through efficient systems, consumption control, sustainable infrastructure and modernization of facilities.

Mainau Manifesto

At the same time, on the occasion of World Environment Day (5 June), the FIS has made public the so-called Mainau Manifesto, a document prepared at the Forum "Mountain Care" held between 22 and 24 November 2019 in the German town of Mainau, and in which the director of Sierra Nevada Mountain and member of the board of the International Ski Federation (FIS) participated in the elaboration of which the director of Sierra Nevada Mountain and member of the board of the International Ski Federation (FIS) participated in the production of which has participated, and in which the director of Mountain of Sierra Nevada and member of the board of the International Ski Federation (FIS) participated in the elaboration of which has participated, the director of Mountain of Sierra Nevada and member of the board of the International Ski Federation (FIS) , Eduardo Valenzuela.

The mainau Manifesto has been involved, together with Valenzuela and other MEMBERS of the FIS - such as the president of the Austrian Ski Federation, Peter Schr'cksnadel, Olympic winter sports athletes such as Hannah Kearney and expert world climatologists such as Hans Peter Schmid, director of the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research - Atmospheric Environmental Research at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (ALE), and Erwin Lauterwasser, honorary chairman of the Environmental Advisory Board of the German Ski Association and author of the book The Ski and Environment.

In the Mainau manifesto - whose spirit make the mountains more livable by reducing emissions and waste - the FIS is committed to developing a strategy to achieve climate neutrality for its own organization and its events by 2030. To this end, the federation will work with international experts to generate a Climate Action Guidelines document, with the aim of making the snow sports climate neutral and sustainable - reducing greenhouse gas emissions - through legislative and regulatory measures in all its member countries.

FiS will also launch education campaigns among skiers and snowboarders on the dependence of winter sports on natural ecosystems. The Mainau manifesto, to be adopted at the next FIS Assembly, also includes measures to prioritize suppliers implementing sustainability measures in their products or services, and to promote environmental awareness among their members and to disseminate it in their communication channels.