ECO-EFFICIENT HOTELS & RESORTS CONFERENCE

SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF AN ITALIAN ALPINE RESORT

R. BELTRAMO, B. CUZZOLIN, P. BAROLO

Department of Commodity Science, Turin University

Piazza Arbarello, 8

I – 10122 Turin, Italy

riccardo.beltramo@unito.it

ABSTRACT

EMS implementation explores new frontiers such as tourist structure. The issue is challenging due to the huge number of tourist flows and to the impacts linked to transportation, alimentation and sometimes energy production.

Alpinism is a particular form of tourism. In spite of the relative small number of alpinists, their activities are carried on in fragile environment. This paper is related to a research we have conducted in the highest hut of the Alps, Regina Margherita Hut, located on the top of Punta Gnifetti, at 4559 m, devoted to verify the applicability of EMAS standard to its managing activities. In addition it deals with the fall out of the research in terms of expansion to other huts and to the elaboration of criteria for the ecolabelling of small alpine Hotels.

BACKGROUND

Commodity Science began to show an interest in the relation between human activities and the natural environment, with many interventions in national and international meetings and the publishing of some scientific articles since the sixties. The field of research mainly considered the influence of traditional productions (manufacturing and agricultural firms) on the consumption of natural resources, aiming at finding useful instruments of study and action to promote a sustainable use of these ones. More recently the attention was focused on organizational management and on new industries, belonging to the tertiary and the advanced tertiary industry. This happened because of the need of a systemic approach that enables to work simultaneously on all the available aspects the reality.

The same evolution is seen to be happened in the planning of environmental policies of the European Union. The latest European laws dealing with the protection of the environment, coming from the Fifth Program for the Environment, deal with many industries and provide many instruments to direct the development towards ecological sustainability.

Tourism, which is expected to have a great expansion in the next years, caught the interest of XIth G.D. that started many specific actions on it. The impact on natural environment due to the construction and the management of the reception structures, from the tourists stay and from the management of their mobility catches today more than yesterday everybody's attention.

At the same time a research is being done to extend the new European instrument for environmental quality management in the industries (EC Reg. 1836/93) to the tourism structures of reception. Today the only available experiences refer to big hotels, sited in very built-up areas.

"Green tourism", "eco-tourism", "eco-sustainable tourism"…These are just few of the words that we ear in our daily dose of meetings and TV shows and that risk to quickly become buzz words, like all the fashions.

The first theory of ecotourism was formulated in the Seventies as the only ecologically sustainable alternative to a disrespectful development, but it soon became in the latest decade not only a reality, but also a big business all over the world, the specialized segment with the highest rate of growth in the free-time market. Few numbers are enough: the industry of tourism grew of about 300%, between 1970 and 1990 and before the end of the century it is expected to grow another 150% (today almost a billion of people travel for tourism every year); moreover according to the latest estimates of UNEP (The United Nations Program for the Environment) tourism will become the first industry in the world and eco-tourists are expected to spend 196 billion dollars around the planet.

The question that easily comes to our mind is: "Might a touristic industry that respects the environment become a reality?". The seed that was sown more than twenty years ago and that was

just an embryo of a talk on tourism and environment, has finally grown up. Has the mountain given birth to the little mouse? Maybe. It is in this context that a project called "Environmental Management System for the hut Capanna Regina Margherita" was started in a convention between The University of Turin and C.A.I. (Club Alpino Italiano). The siting of Capanna Regina Margherita is in the Massif of the Monte Rosa at more than 4559 meters, in the North West of Italy as the map of Fig.1 indicates.

THE RESEARCH

Alpinism is a particular form of tourism which has equally followed a growing trend, on a geographical basis as well, and a diversification of ways to live the mountain. Since the 19^th century the expansion of alpinism in the world and especially in the Alps as a mass sport has been fostered by the construction of huts, as base for subsequent climbing. The Alps have always exerted a fascinating appealing on alpinists all over the world whose coming is related to the Receptivity of huts. Italian huts have a distribution, per altitude, reported in Fig. 2 and host, each year, millions of tourists. Regina Margherita Hut stands for a symbol of the italian alpinism and of the ancient conception of human domination over Nature: it is the highest in Europe, it is a corner stone of the history of CAI (Italian Alpine Club), originally conceived as a place for scientific experiments, in 1893, has gradually change its destination, and now the alpinistic activity is pre-eminent (Figg. 3 and 4 illustrate, respectively, the first building and the hut now). In parallel it has changed in dimension and receptivity. On 1997, 3200 alpinists reached it and data contained in tab. 1 give an idea of its characteristics:

Along the years, experiments regarded the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, glaciology and, after our research, economics, too.

The research specifically deals with the environmental management system of "Regina Margherita Hut", aiming to find a new system of environmental management applicable to it, as much coherent as possible with EMAS or ISO 14001.

Scientific foundations stand in the idea of finding an environmental management system able to reduce the environmental impact in this very severe scenario, where normal intervention and management criteria are not applicable, then tailoring it on other huts, with looser ties, at different altitude.

The research has followed these steps:

1. A bibliographical research on the international actions towards a sustainable tourism, done in our Department with the help of the University of Turin European Bureau and other competent structures that our Department is already in contact with (Euro Info Centre networks, etc…) and on the Internet,

2. A bibliographical research on the management of mountain huts, done in contact with well-known Associations of Alpinism and Environment,

3. A collection of concrete cases and drawing up of a questionnaire to be filled in by the hut guests,

4. An in situ research, done from July 1998 the 19th to the 31st, at "Regina Margherita Hut" to complete the followings:

• drawing up of a scheme of the present management system, referring to the environmental aspects: management of the refuse tip and of the energy;
• individuation of the possible improvements and specific organizational interventions,
• check of the attention of the tourists towards the environment and their availability to be involved in measures of improvement of the relationship between alpinism and the natural environment;
• drawing up of a draft of a handbook of the environmental management of "Regina Margherita Hut";
• sending of the final report to the managers of the hut and discussion with them;
• drawing up of an advertising campaign to promote the initiative.

The starting point has been the drawing of an environmental policy and the elaboration of a multidimensional check list, used during an interview with the top management of the Italian Alpine Club section of Varallo, which has the fiduciary property of the hut. Items investigated have been: Energy, Water, Waste, Gaseous emissions management, relations with suppliers and

business. This very first audit, conducted before the in situ activity, lead to the "environmental radar" of Fig. 5 which provided a rough scenario that oriented the subsequent actions. Liabilities emerging from the radar were merely general as check lists have been prepared thinking of a large number of huts. In addition the first meeting with the top management provided interesting news on interventions carried out through the years to reduce the environmental impact. Actually the hut had to resist to a strong debate within the alpinists’world from a green stream.

The research had its culminating moment between the 19^th and the 31^st of July 1998, when an equip of researchers, after a work of bibliographical research and data processing, reached the hut, to draw up and test the practicability of a suitable System of Environmental Management. In consequence, this paper concerns point 4 listed above (On July 1999, between the 22^nd to 29^th, the research has been continued to test some of the improvement actions; nowadays we are processing data concerning the experimentation).

We conducted an initial environmental review, which tuned indications arising form the radar. Activities performed in the hut have been investigated building input and output diagrams, then considering law constraints and organizational influences. The starting point of the in situ activity has been the diagram in Fig. 6, a description of materials input and output flows. Each activity has been also examined with an eye on law constraints, to verify law compliance.

Laws related to environmental protection and the activities of a hut have been investigated in order to highlight possibilities for improving actions or situation to be reclaimed.

Law constraints for the management of an alpine hut in Italy are related to:

• Electric installations
• Waste disposal (solid, liquid and gaseous)
• Fire-prevention
• Thermal installations
• H.A.C.C.P. - Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points

Fig. 7 makes a list of the activities performed in the hut and Fig. 8 details the flows, showing peculiarities such as the use of solar energy to provide heat to melting the snow for the water supplying or for a share of electricity production. . The numbers put in the boxes of the activities link them to more detailed diagrams, which describe each activity.

To provide an example we report "Water supplying", that is described, with a growing precision rate in Figg. 8 and 9. Inputs of this activity are natural resources (Snow), Fuel (LPG), Materials for snow collecting (Shovel and transportation case), Solar energy and various materials for maintenance.  Water supplying is possible through a boiler fed with LPG and a solar panel, then the water is stored in a tank; these technologies lead to gaseous emissions and solid waste. Water is used in other activities, following procedures that we wrote, watching (and doing ourselves) the everyday work of the team charged of the hut management. The identification numbers of the procedures are reported in the circles. Law constraints forbid the use of the water obtained in such a way as drinking water.

A deepening analysis of the activities performed on the site has been conducted; materials and energy flows have been drawn as well. At the end of this phase, environmental impacts have been qualitatively drawn and schematically presented in Fig. 11:

Definition of procedures

Procedures related to points of potential environmental impact have been written, watching and doing the same activities made by the personnel of the hut (See tab. 2). To ease their application and improve their comprehension they have been enriched with pictures and discussed with team members, then a final version has been reached.

ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS

Besides the technical analysis, efforts have been devoted to the organizational one, by interviews and observation of the tasks. Overcome the typical first answer "Everyone do Everything" and ascertained the existence of an informal task subdivision, we listed the duties for each member of the team. Fig. 12 describes the structure. Due to the altitude, two teams alternate every ten days. Three people made up the team: a team leader, an assistant and a cook. For everyone a job description has been prepared, with a focus on those tasks affecting the environment.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Due to the lack of data (laws don’t foresee the requisite of recording such data), whenever possible we have directly detected the amount of certain flows (and this is the case of products or materials which are perfectly recorded before their transport by helicopter) or we have assumed it on the basis of reasonable hypothesis. Tab. 3 enlists the pollutants per phases

The amount of pollutants has been estimated with stoichiometrical computations or using databases; tab. 4 contains the results and provides an idea on the measurable environmental impact of the hut.

                  Tab. 4:

IMPROVEMENT ANALYSIS

There is no "one way" for improving environmental performances. Accordingly to the systemic approach we followed, improvement analysis has been tracked considering the opportunity for interventions at different level (technical, organizational) and the magnitude of each suggestion must be counted looking at the boundaries of the hut system in relation with other system interconnected with it.

In order to track and evaluate all the possible alternatives, we must not forget that Regina Margherita Hut can be considered an untypical one, as:

1. It has been originally built to satisfy a particular category of users, scientists, but now it has to diversify its supply to guarantee the satisfaction of alpinsits. This factor is not negligible due to the relevant environmental consequences; if the goal is the evaluation of environmental performances of different technic-organizational systems to manage the hut, we must be sure that they are not able to alter the satisfaction degree of guests, but also to assure an activity level equal to the actual one. The functional unit of a hut is a whole of activities that make the guest satisfied. If the denomination "Hut" for the Regina Margherita has a meaning equivalent to the other huts, the functional unit would be at first the satisfied alpinist, then the satisfied scientist. Practically this segmentation is not possible as the goal of the manager is the satisfaction of both the categories, so we can talk about a satisfied guest. At the moment there is a misinterpretation of the core business of the hut: this confusion has influenced the efficacy of the actions suggested.
2. Normally a hut is a starting point used by alpinists for further climbing. it is located in a zone right for this purpose (at the bottom of a deep valley or along a slope) Never on a mountain top as it happens for this hut.
3. A hut has to provide a shelter, with a service level able to give at least a fairly good if not delightful staying. This mean that the hut would have to be equipped with appropriate devices for food preparation, bathroom and showers. Regina Margherita Hut with its equipment and through the service offered from one hand is able to offer a service equal to that one of an hotel (quality and variety of food), but on the other, due to environmental ties, lacks of some essential comfort. In consequence the supply is discordant and this is heavily perceived by guests, among all the scientists that stay there for longer periods than the alpinists.

The top management has been advised to discuss the evolution of the hut core business on the basis of the diagram of Fig. 12, where four hypothetical scenarios are drawn, putting in relation the income with the use of resources. There are good reasons that induce to a careful evaluation of everyone. Now we consider the intelligent alternative which is the most challenging because it foresees an income increasing with less resources. In this case keywords are prevention and involvement. Then, downstream interventions come. At this moment the management has undertaken almost all the action to transfer pollutants to facilities able to treat them. It is the typical example of misplacement of pollution, but in the framework of italian huts this good practice is not so common. We ask them a further effort that is think about pollution prevention and to concentrate on the area on the left of Fig. 14.

PREVENTION addresses to waste generation and emission.

1. Waste prevention It is an action that needs, at the basis, cultural and organizational changes. It can be pursued looking at products supply, so it doesn’t involve just the hut people, but those charged of the suppliers selection. If this guideline is seriously undertaken it will be easier to apply other downstream measures.   At the stage of choosing materials and products for the huts, actions have to concentrate on: >
   • Buying products with less packing which is the highest share of waste produced in the hut.
   • Rationalize packing system, trying to eliminate, before the transport by helicopter the superfluous ones.  In the hut:
   • Through a sharpening of procedures for stock managing it is possible to avoid waste represented by food products out of date of expiration. In addition it is possible to rationalize helicopter flight.
   • It could be possible to ask the alpinists for charging themselves with transportation downhill of waste. Once the alpinists arrive at the end of the trail, they would put the waste in proper places, foreseen for this purpose at Alagna, Gressoney o Zermatt. It is necessary to enforce this action with simple incentives and with control measures. An incentive would be a price reduction on the orders or on the bed and board price.
2.  
3. Substitution of materials. Noting the comparative importance of plastic crockery on the total amount of waste we suggest to procede with a determination of materials with an higher degree of ecocompatibility. On this subject we recommend dishes and cutlery made of potato flour and mais amid.
4. Reduction of waste volume. The reason for this intervention stands in the observation of packing share on the waste. The investment is of no importance if the guest do it themselves, as it happens sometimes.
5. Selective waste sorting. It is an intervention that justifies itself only when, whether in the hut or downstream, there is a system able to reuse effectively the collected fractions. It is clear how, from an environmental point of view, there is a real advantage only if there is a reuse in the site, for instance, through an energy recovery, while the transport by helicopter cancels any benefit, non matter which is the reuse of the recovered fraction. During our staying in the hut we had the opportunity to observe the uniformity of solid waste production. The most frequent typology is packing, made of cardboard, plastic, tin-plate, aluminum.  Selective waste sorting could improve the reduction of volume and the coordination with waste management policy downstream. Laws constraints must be carefully considered as they are particularly sever in the field of gaseous emissions.

INVOLVEMENT is for both personnel and alpinists. A strong motivation toward environment is required. It has been highlighted the need of training on environmental topics for the team members and suggested the adoption of selection criteria not only on the basis of technical skills, but on environmental motivation as well. The success of the environmental program depends on alpinists’behaviour, too. Their involvement with an appropriate communication is crucial to achieve goals for an environmental performance.

On this bases, we have conducted a survey to detect their environmental sensitiveness. In the area of prevention, the 88% declared of being ready to renounce some comfort supplied by huts. Fig. 15 reports the distribution of their answers. This is at the same time a surprising and interesting answer which prove the existence of a space for actions in the field of prevention.

At the end an Environmental management handbook has been prepared with format documents in the following fields:

• Organization chart – Responsibility
• Law constraints
• Procedures
• Environmental effects
• Emission measuring
• Improvement action

Conclusion

The research reached the goal of proving the applicability of EMS to mountains hut, in the contest of sustainable tourism and in relation to a future certification of high altitude tourist structures, on condition that the system is as simple as possible.

It had been possible thanks to the engagement of firms that grasped the opportunity of linking their image to a scientific event, that seeks to underline the very important connections between alpinism and the respect of the environment: Environment Park, Olivetti Computers Worldwide, Grivel Mont Blanc, Greensport Monte Bianco, Napapijri, SCARPA, Sector Sport Watches, Informatica e Territorio, Gervasutti Sport, Les Lunettes.

The research has been followed by specialized magazines and national newspapers and it has sowed the seeds of a new way to deal with environmental problems generated by huts. The Italian Alpine Club gave its sponsorship and hopefully CAI of Varallo undertake the way towards implementation.

A complete version of the research is available in CD ROM version, in Italian. On the Internet (http://web.econ.unito.it/cresta/) it is possible to follow the findings of the research, which didn’t stopped on 1998 but it is an ongoing job.

In 1999 the research has seen the following developments:

• Menù simplification: a doctor specialized in high altitude medicine and a nutritionist verified the adequacy of nourishment supplied to alpinists. In the same time it has been detected the typology of packing of each ingredient. The analysis aims to find a nutritional and environmental optimum.
• Renewable energy: a photovoltaic panel has been used to recharge batteries for a portable phone. The positive result achieved promotes a larger use.
• Ecocompatible materials: crockery made of MaterBiâ have been tested
• More efficient technologies: PC with long lasting batteries has been used proving that it is possible to reduce electric power needs carefully considering data processing needs and following the evolution of technological equipments.

Since the end of this work our activities has been broadened to the application of EMS to small alpine hotels and hut. A pilot project aiming to define the requisite for a green label (called C.H.A.L.E.T. – Conduire un Hotel Aimant L’Environnement et le Torisme) useful to certify the good environmental performances of small hotel in Aosta Valley has been concluded. At the moment we are engaged in the design of a self evaluation method for 5 huts, situated at different altitude.