PROTECTING OUR ALPINE NATURE

So we all can keep experiencing it

Our social responsibility within the environment

Carbon and Plastic Positive and planting trees

We believe that tourism should be fully sustainable and do more good than harm. We also understand our impact and feel responsible for it. That’s why we offset all our CO2 emissions, and the ones of our guests!*. This equals a minimum of 90 tons of CO2/year, the equivalent of 225,000km or 5.6 trips around the world traveled in a SUV.
Sustainability is at the core of everything we do and that’s why we have partnered with Get Mads to turn our business into a force for good.
Good for business, good for the planet, great for your holiday!

Through Get Mads we also plant 5 trees per booking and prevent 350 plastic bottles from entering the ocean every month. Find out more about some of the projects we support on https://www.getmads.com/projects

See our full contributions on our Get Mads profile.

*CO2 offset calculated based on driving Melbourne – Hotham in large 4WD

Leave no trace approach

Today, we live in a world which increasingly generates waste; taking a heavy toll on the environment we live in. Our business abides by the “leave no trace” approach: what we take in, we take out. In order to do this, we split our waste into three categories: our organic waste, recycling waste and general waste. Firstly, we aim to have a majority of organic waste and small day to day choices, like choosing compostable cutlery and crockery, help us achieve this. This waste is disposed of in compostable bags and processed by the local Mount Hotham composting facilities. Secondly, we choose recyclable products which are processed by the Mount Hotham recycling facility. Lastly, our general waste policy is to reuse products wherever possible and to avoid single-use products. Our waste management program has enabled us to dramatically reduce our amount of waste to approximately 6 bags of organic waste, 3 bags of recycling and 0,5 to 1 bag of general waste for an average week with 60-70 guests.

Green Power & Man Power

Sustainable and off the grid eco-village

Our entire eco-village is hand-built using mostly reclaimed timber. When we can’t source used, we source ethical sourced timber. We are fully off-the-grid, all drinking water is brought in by sled, we collect rain water for everything else, power is generated from solar panels located at the eco-village wood fires are used for heating. We consciously choose to use sustainable hardwood for firewood.

Supporting Local Producers

90% of our products are sourced within 120km from Mount Hotham.

As a small business, we go out of our way to support other local businesses. We pride ourselves on the low food miles of 90% of our produce and our ability to partner with other local businesses. The other 10% is importing authentic French cheese and spirits!
Beer is sourced from the local Bright Brewery and the wine we serve is produced in our region by the winemakers of Rutherglen, a collection of 19 wineries from one of Australia’s most historic and iconic wine regions. Both entrée and dessert is lovingly homemade at the base of Mount Hotham, in Harrietville.

1% for the Planet

Giving back for the greater good.

We believe we all have a role to play in the safeguarded of our planet. As a business, we have decided to give 1% of our annual sales towards tackling our planet’s most pressing environmental issues. We believe it is our responsibility, along with other alpine businesses, to protect the unique and fragile alpine environment. Our businesses relies on the beauty of the natural environment, we want to do all we can to ensure its longevity. We all have responsibilities toward the environment as a citizen, a consumer or a business.

For more information about the initiative visit onepercentfortheplanet.org

We are also proud members of the Bob Brown foundation and POW ( Protect Our Winters) to whom we donate to each year.

Education

Investing in the next generation

One of our missions is to educate people on the fragility of our alpine environment and what they can do to aid in its protection. We illustrate the possibility of operating a business that blends into the landscape, has no negative environmental impacts and puts sustainability first. In doing so we incorporate the history of Mount Hotham to highlight how it was, how it is and what we can do to influence how it will be.

This experience was nothing short of exceptional!

We are Qlder’s and I haven’t been to the snow in 33 years – for my sons, it was their snow visit. Apart from all the wonderful snow activities we have enjoyed, the evening spent on this experience was an absolute highlight for us all. Heartfelt congratulations and thanks to our wonderful host, Jf, for creating this amazing experience for people. Especially as it has absolutely zero impact on our precious environment. Maximum enjoyment, minimum footprint. I wish this enterprising, environmentally conscious young man every success! Thank you ….. I’ll be back!