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Snow grooming is the primary source of GHG emissions for Grand Massif Domaines Skiables, accounting for nearly 80% of its direct carbon footprint due to the use of fossil fuels. Reducing our energy consumption and moving away from fossil fuels in this area is therefore a priority for our company.
Following tests carried out last winter, Grand Massif Domaines Skiables decided to switch its entire fleet of snow groomers over to HVO100 synthetic fuel as from the 2022-2023 winter season.
HVO stands for Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil: the residues are purified and treated with hydrogen at high temperature, to make a renewable diesel that has a similar chemical composition to that of regular fossil fuel diesel.
The HVO we will use is a diesel substitute produced in Europe (Rotterdam), specially selected according to technical and environmental criteria from several grades of HVO.
Of 100% renewable origin and manufactured solely from residues (waste fats and used vegetable oils), and therefore without virgin vegetable oil, this HVO reduces greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 80%. (cf. emission factor in the ADEME database). Such a reduction is achieved because the raw material is renewable, and is given a second life.
In addition to this, we aim to achieve even lower emission factors by optimising each stage of the supply chain with the relevant parties. To this end, pre-season filling of the ski area tanks is underway and has been entrusted to a local distributor based in Haute Savoie.
The associated additional costs demonstrate GMDS's strong desire to participate in the effort to decarbonise its economy and to do so as soon as possible.
