The Positive List! This Week’s Best Mountain News

In these times, we could all do with a little positivity boost, so here are some of this week’s most uplifting sustainability and conservation stories from across the globe.

Courmayeur Mont Blanc, Italian Alps Launches New Sustainability Initiative

Courmayeur Mont Blanc’s Skyway Monte Bianco Experience, which offers the unique thrill of reaching the roof of Europe at 3,446 metres, has just announced a brand-new sustainability strategy. Skyway is the first company to propose an environmentally sustainable research project to preserve the Mont Blanc glacier.

A state-of-the-art cableway connecting the Italian Alps to the French, Skyway intends to analyse recent activity results in order to implement an achievable action plan with a clear social and environmental focus.

Skyway is the first company in its sector to propose an environmental sustainability report, curated from the study of three years’ activity results and forming the foundation of the Save the Glacier project. Through the study of suffering millennial glaciers, Skyway intends to undertake concrete action in the form of green-certified supplies, reducing waste volume, eco energy sources and emissions, water and eventually, a green consortium.

Adult tickets start from £25.
www.courmayeurmontblanc.it

Lepogo Lodges Launches Carbon Offset Programme at Noka Camp, South Africa

Lepogo Lodges’ Noka Camp works with local and global charity organisations to offset their guests’ carbon footprint, calculating the carbon emissions resulting from each guest’s journey from the time they leave their home to the moment they return.

The figure is converted into a monetary value which is then donated into one of three conservation projects, including the Community Stove Project. The new stoves reduce the wood used in each household saving 30 trees and 12 tonnes of CO2.

The South African Reforestation Trust is a not-for-profit organisation and platform bringing landowners, institutions, companies and individuals together to plant and extend indigenous forest ecosystems. Stand for Trees and its 16 conservation projects aim to protect the world’s most spectacular forest landscapes, surrounding communities and inhabiting wildlife.

Nightly rates start from £885.
www.lepogolodges.com

Sani Resort, Greece, Leads The Way For Sustainability in Greece 

Following Sani Resort’s recent acknowledgement as the World’s Leading Luxury Green Resort at the World Travel Awards, the world-renowned family destination is delighted to celebrate its successful sustainable practices, whilst looking ahead to develop its current initiatives and introducing new concepts for 2021 and beyond.

Since launching in 2010, Sani Green has focused on improving the resort’s sustainability performance (using well-defined policies and measurable targets), with recent successes including a 3% reduction in energy use in 2019, a 48% reduction in water use per guest since 2016 and the recycling of 2 million kg of materials in the last five years.

All single use plastics have been banned at the resort since 2019 and all of the resort’s electricity usage comes from renewable sources. Looking ahead, Sani Resort is focused on becoming Greece’s first zero carbon resort by 2024. Sani Resort’s carbon neutral footprint is already in place, due to the offsetting of carbon emissions.

visit www.sani-resort.com
Nightly rates start from £114 at Sani Beach.

Aiding and Preserving Wildlife at YTL Hotels’ Pangkor Laut Resort, Malaysia

This one-of-a-kind private island resort nestles comfortably into its jungle island habitat, offering guests beautifully appointed luxury accommodation set high amidst the hills, nestled within lush gardens or resting on stilts above the tropical waters surrounding the island.

Renowned for being a habitat to the Oriental Pied Hornbill and the Great Hornbill, YTL Hotels’ Pangkor Laut Resort invested in preserving their existence and facilitating the increase of their numbers. After the hotel’s Naturalist Department observed significant competition for naturally suited habitats (tree trunks with suitably-sized holes), they started the Hornbill Nesting Box Project by installing wooden nesting boxes made of recycled materials at different areas around the resort in the hope of giving the hornbills alternative spaces for breeding.

Set along the Straits of Malacca, three miles off the West Coast of Malaysia, only a fraction of the 300-acre island has been developed to house this peaceful luxury resort and its Estates. Resting beneath the shade of forest giants as old as the land, this island is not only home to one of the world’s premier resorts but also to a variety of wildlife.

Nightly rates start from £270.
www.pangkorlautresort.com