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Golm Silvretta Lünersee Tourismus GmbH is a medium-sized tourism company in Vorarlberg Montafon with up to 250 employees. They operate 3 areas - Golm, Silvretta and Lünersee with a total of 13 mountain railroads, a snow sports school, 4 restaurants with 2,000 seats and 1 hotel as well as the Silvretta High Alpine Road.
F.acT: How important is the topic of climate neutrality for you as a ski resort and how have you integrated it into your corporate strategy?
Judith Grass : Sustainability with its 3 pillars - ecological, economic and social - is one of our most important points and has been practiced for years. This is also clearly defined in our strategy and our vision is clearly aimed at becoming the most sustainable movement area in the Alps. Our measures are outlined in the strategy paper and our target values are clearly shown and reviewed annually. Our current mission is to reduce our CO2 emissions by 60% by 2030 (based on 2018), and we are well on our way!
F.acT: How are the vision and strategy communicated to the cable car employees in order to get them on board?
Judith Grass: We communicate our strategy very openly, our visions and goals can also be found on our company website, in the employee handbook and our "why" is also presented to employees at regular training sessions. My Managing Director partner and I are in close contact with our employees, get input and are always available to answer questions. We work together continuously to improve our services and check every investment and every new offer against our core brand values - sustainable, familiar and moving. Always with the awareness that our nature and our living space are our greatest assets and that it is our responsibility to do everything we can to preserve them.
For us in the management, it is important to exemplify our enthusiasm and motivate our employees in order to achieve our goals together - to offer our guests a natural mountain experience on the Golm, on the Silvretta and on Lake Lünersee.
Q.acT: How can the guest take responsibility? How are they (actively) involved?
Judith Grass: As a guest, you can make a conscious decision to choose a sustainable company, whether it's your accommodation or the ski resort. It is also advisable to travel by public transport to keep CO2 emissions as low as possible. Leaving the car at home on vacation, switching to public transport or cycling and trying out vegan or vegetarian dishes in between are other small tips. In our restaurants, at least 25% of the dishes are vegan and vegetarian in order to offer guests alternatives here too.
- Staying on the slopes when skiing and not skiing in restricted areas protects nature.
- If you bring your own snacks: use reusable containers, refillable drinking bottles and don't leave any garbage in the countryside.
- Supporting regional suppliers such as farmers or craftsmen keeps the added value in the valley and helps to ensure that food and souvenirs don't have to be shipped halfway around the world.
From this year, we have a new offer, the Green Ticket, which is a combination ticket of day ticket and public transport, so you can get to the mountain railroad even more cheaply and sustainably. We also inform guests when they buy their ticket that they can offset their journey so that they can also contribute to their climate-neutral skiing enjoyment. As a company, we do everything we can to keep our carbon footprint as small as possible and only offset what cannot (yet) be avoided. We are currently working on an initiative to draw our guests' and employees' attention to CO2 emissions in their private lives and to save and offset them together. The whole thing should go online in the course of the winter - it will be interesting to see!
F.acT: What steps are you planning for the (near) future?
Judith Grass: We work on improving our services on a daily basis, and it is often only small steps and measures that make a big difference. Our current focus is on educating and involving our employees in order to create even greater awareness of sustainable measures within the company. In the medium term, we are focusing intensively on the electrification of our mobility on the road and on the slopes.
All our measures can be found here: https://www.golm.at/de/Nachhaltigkeit
In conclusion, I would like to say that it is very important to simply take steps. It's no good if a few companies implement it perfectly, it's important that everyone is aware of their responsibility and sets out on the path. I am always happy to answer any questions, exchange ideas or provide feedback!