ECOMOVE: the green community of Val d’Isère
Since 2007, Vie Val d’Is, the Val d’Isère employees’ association, has put all its environmental projects in the hands of the ‘Ecomove’ community. Run mostly by volunteers, the group aims to find solutions to local environmental issues, in the aim of:
Actions taken by the green community
- Environment Day: Every summer for the last ten years or so, a litter-picking operation has been organised on a sector of the Val d’Isère ski area. In 2021, 185 volunteers retrieved more than a tonne of litter from the ski slopes. For the 2020 campaign, 44% of the pickers were holidaymakers, 37% local residents, 10% summer workers, 5% people who had come specially for the operation, and 4% local property owners. The litter-pickers’ average age is 35 years (2019 figures).
- Ecomove Day: The aim of the event is to raise funds to finance sustainable development initiatives implemented during the summer season (e.g., vegetable plots). There’s also a huge solidarity sale of local items in support of the association, a stand where you can make your own cleaning products and toiletries, a bike/ski repair workshop, a book exchange, refreshment stall, etc.
- Ecocups: For the past 10 years, no single-use cups have been used to serve mulled wine during the torchlit snowshoe descents or new year celebrations! The community provides free, reusable cups to all event organisers. The aim of this measure is to reduce the utilisation of single-use cups and hence generate less waste, as well as keeping the event venues clean.
- Awareness campaigns: Throughout the year, Ecomove implements actions aimed at spreading awareness among the public, such as the distribution of free pocket ashtrays to the resort’s seasonal workers and tourists, vegetable plots for the villagers, poster campaigns across the ski area and in the village (to reduce waste and the number of cigarette butts discarded on the slopes, reduce waste in the resort and ensure that holidaymakers and residents alike realise that they are in a mountain environment, be it on the slopes or in the resort). A regional, free carshare service, Mov’ICI, is available thanks to the local Haute Tarentaise carshare community, GoWiz.