Having had a good laugh at that outfit flogging their 250 quid a night state-of-the-art igloo on our next-door mountain, I had a totally unoriginal but developing 3am-in-the-morning-brainwave - make a feature of our rental property being carbon neutral.
I know nothing besides the nags in the press and organisations like Erase My Footprint which encourage you to calculate your carbon footprint and compensate by purchasing trees, forests etc.
After all, taking a simple wood-fired wooden chalet, minding its own business, 4,500' up an unpolluted mountain, and cramming it with high-tech electronics and gadgets, and the other 'essentials' of modern living, has to be highly dubious in terms of its effect on climate change.
So is it that simple? Calculate the offset, buy the trees and one's conscience is clear?
No, obviously not. But one could try - and if genuine, make it an USP of one's advertising, encouraging punters to offset their cheapo flights and 4WDs churning through the virgin landscape?
Carbon neutral could even be a tick-box on the rental listing sites' search engines.
Nonsense or some sense? Does anyone on LMH do it? Do you lie awake with guilt at your aircons whirring away, your Sky Digiboxes glowing on standby, the pool-heaters on high and the disposable nappies clogging the drains*?
And will creating a green conscience and by making it 'feature' of one's property turn off the genuine carbon neutral punter? Do such eccentric creatures exist?
MG
* Goat, that's going too far
Climate change - cynical, but pragmatic & profitable?
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Mountain Goat
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- Location: Leysin, Alpes Vaudoises, Switzerland
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Hi MG,
I have been putting in the groundwork to do this, and doing some research on the subject. I'll send you the relevant page on the site as soon as it's up - but I feel that it's not something to go off half-cocked about.
What I found...there are a few chalets that do this and some who make a big selling point of it. To me as a punter, it would be a definite plus. I found one chalet company who include carbon offset for flights in their prices and several that encourage it.
I am intending to link up with a project that is planting native trees in the areas stripped by road-building around Chamonix, and donating a sum to them for each stay. I'd really like to be able to give some kind of certificate/sticker/card to each group of people explaining this and thanking them.
I think there is a lot to be said for keeping this kind of thing local - helps create good feeling, hoping to meet some nice people, the project is definitely viable and beneficial.
It's proving a bit tricky at the moment to get in touch with them though, as they don't have a website. I very much want to offer to make them one so we will see. I don't want to publicise this idea on the site as yet as it's all too vague at the moment.
The cost of offsetting the carbon for the chalet appears to be not too much at the moment, though it wil be guesswork of course in this first year.
http://www.climatecare.org/
have good info and if you email them, they will send you the files to add their calculator to your site - I haven't added it yet but it will be going on soon.
I am making a page (provisional title treehuggin.html
) with information about the local recycling facilities, which are excellent, and what we have tried to do in keeping the chalet energy efficient. We've also tried to keep the furniture from sustainable forests (not a massive problem in a French chalet of course, as it's local woods rather than exotic tropicals)
I really wanted to run the chalet on a green electricity tariff, but it sadly doesn't seem to exist in France.
I don't think this is gimmicky myself - I would appreciate it as a customer. However, I am thinking at the moment about the wording - it needs to not be seen as preachy / hair shirt. I think many people who like to holiday in the mountains appreciate efforts made to preserve the mountain environment, but it may be a turn-off to some if not phrased carefully.
Many people are cynical about the phrase, so it's good to put some effort in to ensure that it's more than lip service. However, I do feel strongly that every little helps.
It's also a good publicity point, of course.
I'm hoping to get this all up and running by mid season - sadly there is simply no way it can get done before, we have so much to do as it is. Hopefully when the big push to get everything done for Christmas is past, I can turn my attention to this.
I'd be very interested to hear other's thoughts...
I have been putting in the groundwork to do this, and doing some research on the subject. I'll send you the relevant page on the site as soon as it's up - but I feel that it's not something to go off half-cocked about.
What I found...there are a few chalets that do this and some who make a big selling point of it. To me as a punter, it would be a definite plus. I found one chalet company who include carbon offset for flights in their prices and several that encourage it.
I am intending to link up with a project that is planting native trees in the areas stripped by road-building around Chamonix, and donating a sum to them for each stay. I'd really like to be able to give some kind of certificate/sticker/card to each group of people explaining this and thanking them.
I think there is a lot to be said for keeping this kind of thing local - helps create good feeling, hoping to meet some nice people, the project is definitely viable and beneficial.
It's proving a bit tricky at the moment to get in touch with them though, as they don't have a website. I very much want to offer to make them one so we will see. I don't want to publicise this idea on the site as yet as it's all too vague at the moment.
The cost of offsetting the carbon for the chalet appears to be not too much at the moment, though it wil be guesswork of course in this first year.
http://www.climatecare.org/
have good info and if you email them, they will send you the files to add their calculator to your site - I haven't added it yet but it will be going on soon.
I am making a page (provisional title treehuggin.html
) with information about the local recycling facilities, which are excellent, and what we have tried to do in keeping the chalet energy efficient. We've also tried to keep the furniture from sustainable forests (not a massive problem in a French chalet of course, as it's local woods rather than exotic tropicals)I really wanted to run the chalet on a green electricity tariff, but it sadly doesn't seem to exist in France.
I don't think this is gimmicky myself - I would appreciate it as a customer. However, I am thinking at the moment about the wording - it needs to not be seen as preachy / hair shirt. I think many people who like to holiday in the mountains appreciate efforts made to preserve the mountain environment, but it may be a turn-off to some if not phrased carefully.
Many people are cynical about the phrase, so it's good to put some effort in to ensure that it's more than lip service. However, I do feel strongly that every little helps.
It's also a good publicity point, of course.
I'm hoping to get this all up and running by mid season - sadly there is simply no way it can get done before, we have so much to do as it is. Hopefully when the big push to get everything done for Christmas is past, I can turn my attention to this.
I'd be very interested to hear other's thoughts...
Last edited by Martha on Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:12 am, edited 5 times in total.
Chalet la Foret, Chamonix
Links:
http://mintaero.com/aboutflammerouge.html
http://www.chillinnverbier.com/green.htm
http://www.saveoursnow.com/gstrav.htm#chalets
Are these the people you mean?
http://www.whitepod.com/
Leski add a carbon charge to their flights
http://www.leski.co.uk/Pages/surround.htm
Ski Club's Respect the Mountain
http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/respec ... efault.asp
http://mintaero.com/aboutflammerouge.html
http://www.chillinnverbier.com/green.htm
http://www.saveoursnow.com/gstrav.htm#chalets
Are these the people you mean?
http://www.whitepod.com/
Leski add a carbon charge to their flights
http://www.leski.co.uk/Pages/surround.htm
Ski Club's Respect the Mountain
http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/respec ... efault.asp
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Hells Bells
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Hopefully, as a new build, we have gone some way towards this already. The heating is underfloor hot water from the thermal springs. As far as I can tell, so far our supplementary electric heaters haven't been used, and 82% of our electricity is generated by nuclear power stations. The new swimming pool and spa is also heated by the geothermal springs.
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Normandy Cow
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We haven't done anything specific apart from the usual such as encouraging recycling, but I do like to think that we are in one way a bit of a carbon-neutral destination as the majority of our guests do not fly to us. But I have never researched what the cost to the planet is of the ferries and tunnel - are they pretty much the same with regards to emissions as air travel?
If anyone knows the answer to this, I would be interested.
If anyone knows the answer to this, I would be interested.
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Giddy Goat
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Fascinating post Mountie - and equally interesting to see that Firebug is already looking into the concept as it might apply to alpine properties.
I've been a bit lethargic up until now, apart from avidly recycling, like Catherine, so I'm wondering whether another post in the general section of the forum might bring forth even more responses and raise interest/awareness? Some geographical areas are more vulnerable initially from the greenhouse effect, to be sure, but it ought to be of global concern.
Meanwhile, a nifty little diagram for the goats among us!
http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/earthguide/d ... reenhouse/
I've been a bit lethargic up until now, apart from avidly recycling, like Catherine, so I'm wondering whether another post in the general section of the forum might bring forth even more responses and raise interest/awareness? Some geographical areas are more vulnerable initially from the greenhouse effect, to be sure, but it ought to be of global concern.
Meanwhile, a nifty little diagram for the goats among us!
http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/earthguide/d ... reenhouse/
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be
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Mountain Goat
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Firebug, GG
You're right, there's a lot to learn, and I'll hit the research before making any daft decisions.
There's a lot of rather woolly thinking with how to compensate for our treatment of the planet. I'm always drawn back to the luxury igloo (yes, it is the one above), which I've teased before - one of their features is petrol lamps in the accommodation.
Good grief. They're in a country 'built' for solar energy, 85% (ish) of the electrical power is hydroelectric, and for some bizarre reason they believe that burning petrol (think oil) for lighting their luxury pods is somehow attempting to be green.
Helen
That is impressive - we're nowhere near that sort of level around our place.
CatherineS
I would say that ferries and tunnel are heavily less carbon-hungry than flying on a per passenger basis - will try and find some stats.
MG
You're right, there's a lot to learn, and I'll hit the research before making any daft decisions.
There's a lot of rather woolly thinking with how to compensate for our treatment of the planet. I'm always drawn back to the luxury igloo (yes, it is the one above), which I've teased before - one of their features is petrol lamps in the accommodation.
Good grief. They're in a country 'built' for solar energy, 85% (ish) of the electrical power is hydroelectric, and for some bizarre reason they believe that burning petrol (think oil) for lighting their luxury pods is somehow attempting to be green.
Helen
That is impressive - we're nowhere near that sort of level around our place.
CatherineS
I would say that ferries and tunnel are heavily less carbon-hungry than flying on a per passenger basis - will try and find some stats.
MG
Last edited by Mountain Goat on Sat Dec 09, 2006 10:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Hells Bells
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Mountain Goat
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I'm still up and firing on calculating our carbon footprint, both in the UK and Switzerland. There's stacks of calculators on the web, but 'our' architect has recommended an outfit which works from the plans of the building, and takes data on insulation used in construction etc.
More info when available.
MG
More info when available.
MG
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Mountain Goat
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Firebug
Did you get any further with this? We've had a C02 survey done, been sifting through the offsetting outfits, trying to remember to switch our machines off and not standby, and probably going ahead. It's not easy digging out local projects, as most are non-web.
We're held up with unearthing the specs. on the materials used to insulate the chalet during its renovation.
Anyone else done any research along these lines?
MG
Did you get any further with this? We've had a C02 survey done, been sifting through the offsetting outfits, trying to remember to switch our machines off and not standby, and probably going ahead. It's not easy digging out local projects, as most are non-web.
We're held up with unearthing the specs. on the materials used to insulate the chalet during its renovation.
Anyone else done any research along these lines?
MG
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Normandy Cow
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I haven't yet made a big thing about this in our advertising, but I have added the following to the bottom of the "thank you for staying with us your deposit refund is on its way" email I send out after the people have left...
(P.S. I can't remember where I got those figures from, but it was from one of the websites that had previously been mentioned near the beginning of this thread).
I have been meaning to get around to adding this to our advertising, but as I have never had my figures independently verified, I am worried that I may have got it wrong and I wouldn't want to be accused of false claims, or even worse, of cashing in on the latest "hot" advertising trend...Responsible Travel
Did you know that by travelling to Le Gaillon from London by car, you will have used 99kg of CO2, as opposed to 600kg if you had taken a short-haul flight to a European destination?
It doesn't cost the earth to save the planet...
(P.S. I can't remember where I got those figures from, but it was from one of the websites that had previously been mentioned near the beginning of this thread).
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Mountain Goat
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You might need to tighten up on exactly what you mean. i.e. number of people in car would make a difference (100 kgs/person - lone driver, 50 kgs/person pair of adults, 25 kgs/person hus., wife + 2 veg.) and of course, makes a massive difference distance travelled (Glasgow twice Birmingham?). Cute to add a pet as well on your webform calculator.
The best site (I think Firebug mentioned above) I've come across is connected with a new airline flogging one-class luxury travel across the pond and knowing its punters were going to be racked (wracked?) with guilt:
http://www.carbonneutral.com/
though I'm sure we can look forward to plenty of offsetting outfits exposed for taking your money and laughing all the way to the bank, which would be a pity but inevitable.
Would vineyards count? That would be great - offset by planting a vineyard and everyone wins. In fact, that's a seriously good idea and far sexier than buying another few acres of boring Amazon rainforest. You'd get AirMile-type points for the more you flew, and that would be credited to the amount of wine you were entitled to....any investors out there? Get p*****, save the planet...enjoy being carbon neutral....
MG
The best site (I think Firebug mentioned above) I've come across is connected with a new airline flogging one-class luxury travel across the pond and knowing its punters were going to be racked (wracked?) with guilt:
http://www.carbonneutral.com/
though I'm sure we can look forward to plenty of offsetting outfits exposed for taking your money and laughing all the way to the bank, which would be a pity but inevitable.
Would vineyards count? That would be great - offset by planting a vineyard and everyone wins. In fact, that's a seriously good idea and far sexier than buying another few acres of boring Amazon rainforest. You'd get AirMile-type points for the more you flew, and that would be credited to the amount of wine you were entitled to....any investors out there? Get p*****, save the planet...enjoy being carbon neutral....
MG