DRIVING FOR TOMORROW
Reducing our impact on the environment
Where We Are At
In all honestly, no transport company can claim to be eco friendly. Tourism is far from eco friendly. However, mountain and beach holidays sustain many people’s livelihoods and holidays are an essential part of the human existence. But we can all strive to do better at reducing the effects your holiday and our service has on our ecosystem. Transporting people requires energy, producing the vehicles we use requires resources, the maintenance of our vehicles requires parts and fluids. At Snowdrone have been moving forward to reduce our impact on our environment and we will continue to push ourselves to divest from negative environmental impact where we can.
Where We Started
We started using our first electric vehicles in 2017 with our Teslas. In 2019, we bought 3 Mercedes EQVs, the fully electric version of the V Class. For this winter, we will have 7 electric vehicles. Given the long journeys we make, it makes sense to use mass produced electricity to power the vehicles, which emit far less carbon dioxide and harmful emissions than fossil fuel based vehicles over the daily 400km we drive. We are fully aware of the issues regarding battery production and disposal, and we don’t preach this is the end game, but it is the start to moving towards what we can do to make our clients’ holidays sustainable.
Where We Are Going
We will continue to invest in the lastest electric vehicles that are suitable to the task at hand of transporting groups, with their luggage, over long distances. Our main bottleneck at the moment is the charging infrastructure both where we are based and at the airports, alongside the range of current suitable vehicles. They can’t sustain our whole fleet. Also on some routes, using an electric vehicle isn’t possible because of the lack of chargers and range. So we will continue to use our diesel vehicles for some time to come and will extend their lives with careful maintenance, while we offset all their carbon emissions through our partnership programme with our fuel provider.
It Is Not Just The Vehicles
We strive not to use any single use plastic. All our cleaning products are delivered in large containers, which we then dispense into reusable bottles. Most of what we use is biodegradable. Our office team can either work from home or are able to walk to work. We optimise our schedule to reduce empty driving journeys and as we are based in Val d’Isère and other ski resorts, a lot of the time the driver has had only a short journey to pick you up, rather than a long journey up a mountain road from a far away place. It’s a long journey ahead, but we have made a start and encourage cooperation to push ourselves, our clients and our partners to making ski holidays sustainable, so that future generations can enjoy what we are able to enjoy now.
What we are doing
electric vehicles
We have the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the Alps, using the Mercedes EQV and Tesla Model X
vehicle mix
In the winter, 25% of our transfers are operated fully electric. In the summer this rate increases to 90%
Charging points
The charging points we use at base and on the road are selected based on utilising renewable energy as its source
Mountain Based
Cleaning products
Carbon Offsetting
All of our ICE vehicles are Euro 6 rated and have all their carbon emissions offset through our partner fuel program