Carbon footprint and tourism transition at La Croix de Bauzon

Initially, the students carried out a carbon assessment of the Croix de Bauzon site – using their theoretical and technical knowledge – in order to objectivize the “energy cost” of this leisure site, and analyzed the practices and expectations of customers. They then proposed concrete solutions for reducing the site’s carbon footprint in three distinct areas: energy, mobility and infrastructure.

Under the supervision of a consultancy specializing in carbon footprints on stations (with Bastien Faure-Brac from Apus-Energy), the students used data supplied by the technicians and managers of the Croix de Bauzon.

Unsurprisingly, the results show that recreational travel to the resort is the main source of GHG emissions (around 70%), ahead of equipment and building maintenance services (15%), and far ahead of the energy consumed on the site as a whole for its operation (8%), of which snow guns account for a very small share (1%).

The results in terms of mobility, which are lower than for larger resorts (generally representing around 90-95% of the carbon footprint), show the specific nature of the area, where a large proportion of the public (schoolchildren) come by bus, while the very modest size of the ski area reduces the share of energy, since the work of the snow groomers is not as important as in larger resorts.

The geo-tourism configuration of this resort, in a mid-range mountain range particularly hard hit by climate change but supported by local authorities as a public service facility, made it a particularly interesting case for the students, in terms of the question of tourism transitions in mid-range mountains.