CairnGorm Mountain Retains Gold Status in Green Tourism Awards

Since 2004 CairnGorm Mountain has achieved a 100% success rate in achieving the highest status – Gold – in the Green Tourism Scheme administered by VisitScotland.
The Green Tourism Business Scheme has been running since 1997 and with over 2000 members across the whole of the UK and Ireland, it is the largest and most established scheme of its type in the World. The aim is to ensure that UK tourism remains at the forefront of sustainable tourism in the future. There are over 150 individual measures in the criteria, which focus on 10 different areas.

CairnGorm Mountain’s first assessment took place in 2004 and in its most recent assessment achieved a score of 80% retaining its Gold Award and the report noted that “Good developments are in place since the last audit.”
Highlights from the recent audit include UV treated water, ecological waste water treatment, excellent mountain interpretation, good visitor recycling facilities, local crafts and the use of 100% recycled paper site wide. The generation of electricity back and its supply back to the National Grid was also a point of note in the report. The funicular railway is able to generate electricity when the downhill carriage is full and the uphill car is empty. This often occurs towards the end of the afternoon when skiers and visitors are leaving the mountain. Of particular note is the continued development and promotion of the Poo Project and leave no trace practices of the resort.
 
This project is run by the Cairngorm Ranger Service with the sponsorship support of outdoor retailer, Tiso’s and encourages those who winter snow hole to carry out their human waste and dispose of it in the waste treatment plant at Coire Cas Car Park. Special “poo pots” and biodegradable starch bags are available from the Ranger Base and since its implementation there has been a significant clean up at snow holing sites on the mountain.