So that people can continue skiing on these beautiful snowy mountains forever... Protect Our Winters (POW) Japan is engaged in various activities to "achieve a carbon-free society initiated by the snow community." To promote carbon-free and sustainable ski resorts, they have recently produced and published the "Sustainable Resort Handbook for Green Ski Resorts."
In December 2023, POW launched a project called the Sustainable Resort Alliance (SRA), a federation of resorts promoting sustainability. The alliance aims to make ski resorts across the country zero-carbon and sustainable, and has focused on creating a space where ski resorts and skiers can work together to achieve this
STEEP also provides detailed information on the sustainability efforts of SRA member ski resorts. During the 2023 snow season, we featured five ski resorts: Able Hakuba Goryu , Katashina Kogen Ski Resort , Smile Resort , Tokyu Land Corporation , Hakuba Happo-One Ski Resort
The aims and outline of the handbook created by POW, which focuses on decarbonizing and sustainability at ski resorts, are as follows. Here
is a brief summary of the contents taken from the press release (PR TIMES, August 5, 2024).
■ Purpose of the handbook
POW shows this:
Through our activities to date, we have heard from ski resorts across the country that they feel a sense of crisis about global warming and want to do something, but don't know where to start. We want concrete initiatives. POW JAPAN has been researching examples both in Japan and abroad, but we haven't found anything that comprehensively summarizes decarbonization and sustainability efforts at ski resorts. With the
the SRA advisory team which is made up of specialists in various fields , and ski resorts already taking the lead, we have decided to create a handbook specifically for decarbonization and sustainability at ski resorts, taking inspiration from efforts in other industries.
This handbook includes an action list to encourage "first steps" and introduces leading examples from snow resorts both in Japan and abroad. We hope that this handbook will inspire ski resorts to continue building and developing their own initiatives, which will then spread to local governments and related companies near the ski resorts, the entire snow industry, and other industries.
~POW Japan
■ Handbook Overview
・Features interviews focusing on Europe, North America, and Nozawa Onsen Village as cutting-edge initiatives by snow resorts and snow towns both in Japan and overseas.
・Introduces 12 actions focused on zero carbon and sustainability in snow resort management.
・The handbook distributed to member ski resorts was printed by Okawa Printing Co., Ltd., which is committed to thorough environmental printing, using FSC® certified paper, non-VOC (0% petroleum-based solvent) ink, and 100% renewable energy.
・32 color pages
The PDF version of this handbook is available for free on the POW official website so that people in the ski resort and snow industry, and everyone in general, can become interested in and access sustainability initiatives. It's
packed with interesting information, so be sure to check it out.
Information
POW JAPAN
◆Official website: https://protectourwinters.jp/
◆Official social media: Instagram ｜ Facebook ｜ YouTube