Eco-friendly Chamonix holidays

Chamonix is popular with tourists from around the world looking for eco-friendly ski holidays and summer holidays thanks to its beautiful natural surroundings, which include the perennially snow-capped Mont Blanc. The impact of climate change is visible here every season with warmer summers increasing glacier melt and changeable snow conditions in winter.

To ensure that generations after us can continue to enjoy this beautiful valley and all the amazing activities available in it, we at Chamonix All Year are working hard to encourage our team to do their bit to reduce their impact on the local environment, and to encourage our guests to enjoy eco-friendly ski holidays!

What can our guests do?

There are lots of simple daily actions you can take during your eco-friendly ski holidays or in the summer to reduce your impact on the environment. Our top tips are built around the three ‘R’s – it’s easy!

  • REDUCE: use a reusable water bottle when hiking or skiing instead of a disposal plastic one. Remember to take your own shopping bags instead of taking disposable ones.
  • REUSE: choose bags for life!
  • RECYCLE: Remember to separate out your recycling (cardboard, paper, plastic and tins in one container, glass in another one). Leave your Nespresso capsules in the special recycling bag with the keys on departure – our cleaners will bring this back to our office where we will send them off for recycling.

Eco-friendly actions in your accommodation

Here are some more suggestions for easy steps you can take while you are in your Chamonix accommodation.

  • Remember to turn down the heating when you’re not in your accommodation to save energy.
  • Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth or washing the dishes.
  • Take a shower instead of a bath – or even better, shower with a friend!
  • Remember to turn off the lights when leaving a room or the property, as well as the TV, or any other electrical items.
  • During winter season, close the shutters at night so the heat doesn’t escape.
  • Leave any unused, clean towels or linen on the table with the keys on departure. Our cleaners will reuse them instead of sending them for unnecessary cleaning.
  • We’d also like to ask you to consider reducing your use of the log fire in your accommodation. Due to the geography of the valley, during periods of high pressure the smoke created by log fires can’t escape and is trapped in the bottom of the valley. The small particles in the smoke have an effect on the health of visitors like yourselves and the people who live here. We therefore ask you to bear this in mind and not use the fireplace unless absolutely necessary for warmth, particularly during periods of high pressure.

Please also help us to offer eco-friendly ski holidays by telling us if you see any of problems in the property, such as leaky sinks or toilets, badly sealed windows, or light bulbs that need replacing so we can fix them. 

Other actions you can take around the Chamonix valley

While you’re out and about, you can try taking some of these steps to save the beautiful mountains of the Chamonix valley.

  • Choose low impact transportation such as buses, trains or bike. All our guests benefit from free access to the public transport in the valley with the guest cards that we give you on arrival.
  • Visit the market on Saturday mornings or the Cooperative on Place du Mont Blanc to buy local products.
  • While you’re in France choose French manufactured products for a nice souvenir to take back home.
  • Consider going vegetarian.
  • Off-set your carbon emissions and support projects in Chamonix which combat air pollution.

What are we doing?

Chamonix All Year is also taking action to be more environmentally friends and to help our Chamonix Valley become greener, so you can enjoy eco-friendly ski holidays and summer holidays. 

  • Our staff undergoes environmental training before signing an eco-friendly staff behaviour chart.
  • We recycle as much as possible with additional bins in our office. 
  • We partner with Ecorider ski school (www.ecorider.org) which is the first ski school to work on global warming.
  • When we meet our guests, 90% of our Meet & Greets are done on foot or riding a bike.
  • We use eco-friendly cleaning products in our properties and spare linen rags rather than kitchen roll.
  • Our activities and transport brochures are printed on sustainable paper stock.
  • We communicate about these actions in our property info file and on our website / blog to help our guests act locally on the climate change.