Celebrate Environmental Awareness, Sustainability & Education with POW & Thredbo

• Thredbo announces 100% of its lifting and snowmaking electricity will be offset for winter 2018 thanks to a unique partnership with Arnhem Land Fire Abatement  (ALFA) Project.
• Protect Our Winters – POW Australia to launch with a ‘Hike for POW’  to Mt Kosciuszko and an information night lead by international free-skiing legend and POW board member Chris Davenport in Thredbo.
• To support National Tree Day (Sunday 29 July) Thredbo will be encouraging all guests to offset their journey emissions by matching all guest tree purchases / donations over the weekend thanks to Thredbo’s vehicle offset partnership with Greenfleet.

Thredbo will be engaging guests with a weekend of environmental awareness, sustainability and education.,. The weekend of July 27-29 will include announcing new partnerships, celebrating the establishment of POW Australia and highlighting a number of its current environmental initiatives. These initiatives are all aimed at protecting winter and the unique alpine environments in Australia.

A highlight of the weekend will be the announcement of an exciting new partnership with the Arnhem Land Fire Abatement Project (ALFA) that will offset 100% of Thredbo’s emissions generated by the electricity used on its lifting and snowmaking operations for winter 2018.

Coming to Thredbo to share details about the partnership will be ALFAs CEO Jennifer Ansell and ALFA Board Member Dean Yibarbuk, who is also the Chairperson for Warddeken Land Management Limited and has been involved in Arnhem Land fire projects from the very beginning.

Another feature of the weekend will be the ‘Hike for POW’. On Friday, there will be a mass backcountry hike to the top of Mt Kosciuszko to celebrate the establishment of POW Australia

The mass hike to the top of Mt Kosciuszko will be open for all backcountry snow enthusiasts to show their support of POW and will be led by American free-skiing legend Chris Davenport, who also happens to be a board member of POW and will be in Australia to help promote the establishment of POW’s Australian chapter.

Thredbo was the inaugural Australian partner of POW and its goal in collaborating is to raise awareness towards the impact of climate change on our mountain environment and to continuously improve Thredbo’s environmental performance. Since Thredbo joined in July last year it has continued to place environmental issues at the top of its agenda and implemented a number of initiatives to help reduce the human impact of the environment.

Thredbo will also be celebrating National Tree Day. Proudly sponsored by Toyota Australia, Tree Day is an opportunity to do something positive for your local environment and community and to reconnect with nature. National Tree Day started in 1996 and since then more than 4 million people have planted over 24 million trees and plants and it’s still growing.

In 2009 Thredbo partnered with Greenfleet to offset the carbon emissions from its entire fleet of cars and snow groomers. And in 2014, in what was a global first at the time, started a forestry carbon offset program with Greenfleet for guests where visitors can offset their car emissions from their journey to Thredbo by purchasing a $4.00 Greenfleet tree on Thredbo’s eStore.

Since 2014, Thredbo guests have offset nearly 8,000 tonnes of carbon emissions by planting over 30,000 trees. Across the weekend guests are encouraged to purchase a tree and Thredbo will be matching all donations throughout the entire weekend.

Register for the Hike for POW now

ABOUT ALFA

ALFA is a not-for-profit company owned by Aboriginal people of Arnhem Land who use strategic fire management activities to reduce the extent and severity of destructive late-dry-season wildfires and in doing so reduce the fire-generated emissions of greenhouse gases.  Aboriginal ranger groups undertake aerial and ground burning in the early dry season to reduce fuel loads, protect important environmental and cultural sites and to establish a mosaic of low intensity burns around and within the project area.  This reduces emissions as the resultant fires are less intense and overall less country is burnt each year.

To date, the fire projects in Arnhem Land have been issued with 1.8 million Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) representing an abatement of 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (one ACCU is the equivalent of one tonne of carbon dioxide). Of the 45.4 million ACCUs issued by the Clean Energy Regulator in Australia across all approved methodologies, the fire projects in Arnhem Land account for 4 % of the total ACCU production. The fire projects in Arnhem Land therefore make a very real contribution to reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The purchase of ALFA generated ACCUs supports Aboriginal people in returning to, remaining on and managing their country, the protection of biodiversity, the preservation and transfer of knowledge, the maintenance of Aboriginal languages and the wellbeing of traditional custodians.

Thredbo have purchased 4,700 ACCUs this is offsetting emissions equivalent to those created by the energy consumption used for all snowmaking and lift operations for the 2018 snow season.

This recent partnership is another example of Thredbo’s commitment to operating in a more environmentally sustainable manner.

About POW

POW is a passionate crew of international snow enthusiasts, professional athletes and industry partners mobilising the outdoor sports community to lead the charge towards positive climate action. Since founding POW 10 years ago the organisation has grown into a global network of over 130,000 supporters and engaging with 60 million+ snowsports enthusiasts across the world, a following that is fast growing momentum in Australian alpine communities. Leading the POW chapter in Australia is a passionate group of advocates including Tony ‘Harro’ Harrington, Rhylla Morgan, Josh Fletcher and Kerris McLiver. https://protectourwinters.org/

About National Tree Day

Planet Ark recently celebrated 22 years of National Tree Day and Schools Tree Day – Australia’s largest community tree-planting and nature care event and it’sproudly sponsored by Toyota Australia,

The dates for 2018 are:

• Schools Tree Day Friday 27th July 2018 and
• National Tree Day Sunday 29th July 2018

https://treeday.planetark.org/

Thredbo’s main environmental initiatives:

• This winter, all the snowmaking and lifting operating emissions will be 100% offset thanks tothe new Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (ALFA) partnership.
• Thredbo are proud to be the first Australian partner of Protect Our Winters (POW). The goal in collaborating with POW is to raise awareness around the impact of climate change on our mountain environment and to continuously improve Thredbo’s environmental performance.
• Thredbo has partnered with Greenfleet since 2009 to offset the emissions of the entire fleet of snow groomers, buses and work vehicles.
• This winter all Thredbo staff members are provided a free reusable collapsible coffee cups. This will save a huge 42,000 disposable cups from going to landfill over the season. The Thredbo collapsible cups are available to all guests to purchase at any Thredbo outlet or coffee shop.
• Solar Powered Leisure Centre – a large scale solar system was installed on the curved roof of the Thredbo Leisure Centre. With around 290 panels, the system is 20 times the size of one at your average house and is set to supply close to 20% of the centre’s electricity.
• All Thredbo owned food, beverage and retail outlets will remove single use plastic bags, moving to biodegradable and commercially compostable packaging, cutlery and paper straws.
• Thredbo’s snowmaking system has been progressively upgraded and automated over the last decade resulting in approximately 40% less energy use per cubic metre of snow produced.
• 100% Solar powered street lights have been installed along Friday Drive To measure the resorts Environmental performance Thredbo is certified under EarthCheck’s Destination standard. Gaining Silver certification in 2017, Thredbo are continuing to improve the sustainability of the resort with the aim of achieving Gold Certification in 2021.

To find out more about Thredbo’s environmental initiatives head over to https://www.thredbo.com.au/about-thredbo/environment/