The Organizing Committee of the 2019 Alpine Skiing World Cup Finals has prepared a couple of days this Saturday and Sunday to show its commitment to preserving nature and to raise awareness among resort users and society in general about the need to perform small actions to contribute to this goal. The “World Champions in Preserving Nature” initiative has been launched in conjunction with World Nature Conservation Day, which is celebrated every year on 03 March.
This undertaking, which took place at the Illa Carlemany Shopping Centre, included an audiovisual projection to show some of the actions carried out by Grandvalira-Ensisa to help protect the environment. The various initiatives include measures to integrate the landscape and environment into the new Soldeu ski platform. During its construction, efforts were made to prevent interference with the riverbed, waste was managed responsibly, land management was conducted without generating any excesses and measures were implemented to reduce the impact on life in the river, among other actions. Additionally, the structural concept incorporated elements derived from the cultural heritage of Andorra.
The Grandvalira-Ensisa Quality and Environment Director, Ton Naudi, stressed that the resort's commitment to the environment has been a strategic objective for more than 20 years and that the numerous actions in this area have made it the only resort in the Pyrenees to have all its activities certified with the ISOs of quality, environmental management, occupational health and safety and food management. During the initiative this weekend, emphasis was also placed on actions such as the recent acquisition of the most sustainable snow grooming machines on the market, the sorting of waste from restaurants on the slopes and the recycling project to turn cigarette butts into splints to immobilize injured people.
To bring visibility to this project, a machine has been installed at Illa Carlemany to collect cigarette butts from the ski slopes to be cleaned and disinfected for subsequent use in the splints employed by slope rangers to immobilize injured people. The aim is to encourage everyone to take part in World Nature Conservation Day by recycling this waste, which is already collected at a total of nine points around the resort's restaurants.
The “World Champions in Preserving Nature” initiative is part of the program of events preceding the Andorra 2019 World Cup Finals - which will be held from 11 to 17 March -, and it has helped get Andorran society involved in the event and promote greater sustainability.
