More skiing and fossil-free travel - this is how we at SkiStar will reduce our carbon footprint

Global warming is affecting mountain tourism and ensuring that our mountain environments can be enjoyed by future generations requires more active work. With an ambitious goal of halving emissions throughout the value chain by 2030, several initiatives are now underway to reduce emissions from our guests' journeys to and from the mountains, which account for as much as 73 per cent of our total climate impact.

Approved climate targets for reduced environmental impact

−As we are already seeing the effects of climate change, reducing our carbon footprint, both in our own operations and in the value chain, is a natural step. To ensure that our efforts to reduce our climate impact are sufficient and in line with what is required to achieve the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming, we have developed climate targets in line with science and the climate targets are approved under the Science Based Targets initiative*,’ explains Fanny Sjödin, our Sustainability Manager at SkiStar.  

In the work on the goals, it emerged that our biggest climate impact (73 per cent) comes from our guests' travel to the mountains. This was a very important insight for our continued work going forward. With an ambitious goal to halve our guests' carbon footprint by 2030, we are working hard to succeed.

-Right now, many initiatives and projects are underway to reach our goals on time. Among other things, we have initiated a long-term and close collaboration with several travel operators where we together have the vision that people should be able to go to the mountains all year round. We want people to be able to take the train all the way to Sälen, which they could actually do until 1969, when the railway was closed. We're working hard with other organisations to get the train line up and running again. Carpooling is another way to reduce your climate impact to the mountains. Since the winter of 2023/2024, we have weekend trips by bus to Vemdalen and Hemsedal to get more people travelling together. Once there, there are free ski buses for everyone with a SkiPass,’ says Fanny Sjödin.

Climate change and global warming are an issue for all countries in the world and in 2024 a global partnership, the Global Sustainaiblity Ski Alliance, was initiated, where sustainability managers from several major ski resorts and internationally, meet to share experiences and set common goals for the future, in order to take responsibility together.

Mobile guests

- For guests travelling by electric car, for example, Destination Sälenfjällen has produced a map of the green road with charging infrastructure from Västerås/Stockholm and on up through Västerdalarna. We have also expanded the number of charging points and today there are over 600 charging points, and the number will rise to 800 by 2028. During the sports holidays 21/22 and 22/23, we set up mobile charging stations for electric cars in Ljusdal and Sveg through partnerships, as they are important hubs for our guests. This inspired municipalities and companies to invest in permanent electric car chargers in these areas,’ says Fanny Sjödin.

But despite the fact that more and more people are travelling to the mountains by electric car, many guests come by regular car, and here too a number of initiatives are underway to get guests to reduce their carbon footprint.

-"For those guests travelling to us with a diesel car, we want to encourage them to refuel with HVO100, which is a much better fuel for the climate. Here we are looking at right now to establish a collaboration with a suitable partner who provides certified HVO100. In the future, we hope to be able to offer incentives for our guests, such as a discount on SkiPass if they show that they have refuelled with HVO100 on their journey to us. And once you've arrived, you can park your car and use our biofuel-powered ski buses to get to the slopes, a service we've had for several years,’ says Fanny Sjödin.

Air travel is a hot topic

Only 2% of our guests travel by air, which accounts for 7-8% of total greenhouse gas emissions, but our co-ownership of the airport has been heavily criticised.

- We are one of 33 co-owners of Scandinavian Mountains Airport, which opened in 2019 and aimed to grow the SITE region (Sälen, Idre, Trysil and Engerdal). Internationalisation was the driving force behind the construction for the whole region, and in the long term, this airport will be perfect for electric flights. Growth is important, but now it's about transitioning and becoming fossil-free. We need to do things differently. Our plan to halve guest travel also includes air travel, and we also see that the airport can be used to increase knowledge about, for example, SF Biofuel, test new technologies, be used for battery storage and solar panels, etc.

*The Science Based Targets initiative brings the world's businesses together by offering the opportunity to set ambitious climate targets in line with what science says is needed to limit global warming to 1.5˚C. Since its inception in 2015, over 1500 companies have committed to reducing their emissions through the initiative, and over 800 have had their targets approved). 
** SkiStar owns 47% of Scandinavian Mountains Airport