Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo has announced that following the decision to award the 2021 Ski World Championships to the famous Italian resort, they will be building on the destination’s long tradition as venue for international sport events. The resort will do this by making important infrastructure investments, with a focus on renewable energy and sustainable development. Their aim is to catapult this much-loved Dolomite ski destination into the future, while safeguarding the alpine ecosystem.
To that end, the Cortina Charter has been working in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment, the Municipality of Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Veneto Region, the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation and http://www.sprecozero.net/ (zero waste) and others. The association hopes to promote the creation of an innovative development model, to encourage sustainable alpine tourism ahead of the 2021 World Championships.
A number of initiatives have already been launched, designed to engage citizens and local stakeholders, and to communicate to the industry as a whole the potential of their model – one that can be replicated in every alpine destination. These initiatives include a focus on involving the youth of Cortina as much as possible, creating a young, forward-thinking team that reflect the newer generations of adults today.
Preserving the environment both on a local scale and in a wider context will be a key argument when decisions are made. In particular, using sustainable and renewable sources of energy, as well as a minimum impact approach will be a key consideration. For example Cortina is hoping to use only electrical modes of transportation, for people and materials. Both the infrastructure projects leading up to the event and the event itself will seek to minimise the resort’s ecological footprint.
Finally, in terms of innovation and technology: the resort wants to use new technologies, both to achieve its sustainability goals and to showcase the very latest technologies available to ski areas.
Winter athletes competing in the annual Cortina World Cup, pictured below:
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