Carezza really means it!

At 1,170 to 2,337 meters above sea-level, the Carezza ski area has set itself even higher goals. On November 30 2019, this ski area in the Eggen Valley launches a new season. And it's the first Italian ski area to join the 2025 Climate Neutrality Alliance. The goal: For Carezza Dolomites to achieve a neutral carbon footprint in a maximum of three years.

"We are doing everything we can to avoid unnecessary energy consumption," explains Florian Eisath, CEO of Carezza Dolomites. Since the Carezza ski area– together with the partner area Arosa – joined the "Alpine Climate Ski Area" in 2011, it has succeeded in reducing its fuel consumption for slope grooming by up to 30 percent, and to decrease its use of electricity for the technical generation of snow by up to 25 percent. This was made possible by the intelligent, fully-electronic snow generator and improved slope grooming techniques using GPS tracks and snow-depth measurement. Now, they're going one step farther: "It's important that we now expand our conservation efforts to include such additional topics as reducing plastic waste at the ski huts and to convert all sanitary paper products and office paper to recycling products," continues Florian Eisath.

In the future, the focus will be on measurement, reduction, and compensation. The goal is to reduce emissions not only of carbon dioxide, but also of other greenhouse gases such as methane or laughing gas – i.e., to lower CO₂ equivalents (CO2e). This unit of measure was introduced to take into account the varying negative effects of the different greenhouse houses.

"In a first step, our experts will use a standardized calculation method to determine the CO2e emissions at the ski area. It is expected that they will complete that task by the end of this year," explains Elisabeth Präauer of the Terra Institute, the contact person for the 2025 Climate Neutrality Alliance in South Tyrol. Thus, the ski area will put its cards on the table with regards to climatic effects.

"In a second step, we will help the company to define measures to minimize the corporate CO2e footprint," says Elisabeth Präauer. "According to the so-called 'Rule of Twelfths,' each commercial enterprise commits to compensate its CO2e emissions by at least  QUOTE   in the first year,  QUOTE   in the second year,  QUOTE   in the third year, and so on." The company has a maximum of 12 years to achieve carbon neutrality. "Carezza Dolomites has the goal to be completely carbon neutral by the year 2022, at the latest," Florian Eisath emphasizes.

But it will take more than regional reduction to achieve carbon neutrality. Rather, global compensation measures will also be employed. "Unavoidable emissions will be compensated for by providing funding for high-quality climate protection projects in Developing Countries," explains expert Elisabeth Präauer. The projects are selected by the 2025 Climate Neutrality Alliance in cooperation with the Swiss charitable organization myclimate. The amount of the compensation funding is calculated on the basis of the unavoidable emissions calculated (in terms of tons of CO2e).

"We are making enormous efforts to help the global climate and the natural environment of the Eggen Valley," Florian Eisath emphasizes. Thus, all of the events in the framework of "Green Events" are organized along ecological principles so as to achieve a minimum of solid waste and a maximum of waste separation. In order to generally reduce plastic and container waste in the ski area, Carezza Dolomites intends to gain the ski huts, too, as partners for their sustainability project.

All in all, 20 ski huts with sun terraces located in the Carezza climate area invite guests to sample various Italian and South Tyrolean specialties. The season begins on November 30 and continues until March 22, 2020. Especially children are guaranteed fun-filled skiing excitement in the legendary realm of "Laurin, the Dwarf King," here beneath the magnificent "Rose Garden." With two Kiddy Land areas, a slope with amusing children's motifs, and their own children's playroom, the kids will have more than enough to keep them occupied the whole day long. The total of 40 km of slopes beneath the "Rose Garden" and the Latemar are quite accessible: From Bozen Nord, one can reach the aerial gondola lift in the center of Welschnofen in just 15 minutes.

The Climate neutrality alliance 2025 becomes "turn to zero": in autumn 2021, the initiative was renamed "turn to zero", on the one hand to do justice to multilingualism and on the other hand, the term "climate neutrality" does not necessarily imply a reduction. However, we can only make a real contribution if emissions are first avoided and reduced and then offset.

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