Protect Our Winters

Skier in a green jacket skiing downhill through deep powder snow, creating a large cloud of snow spray.

THE PROJECT

OVERVIEW

A materiality assessment tool that helps Europe's leading mountain destinations identify where their carbon impact actually sits and what to do about it. Built as a concept for POW Europe to scale climate action across the alpine industry.

CHALLENGE

Resort sustainability teams drown in complexity. Energy, water, waste, food and beverage, biodiversity, guest transport—each domain carries weight, but not equal weight. Without a clear view of where impact concentrates, action becomes scattered. Teams produce glossy reports but struggle to prioritise. Meanwhile, glaciers retreat and snow lines climb.The alpine industry knows it must act. It lacks the tool to see where.

GOAL

A materiality assessment that cuts through noise. Six impact domains. Guided questions. A clear matrix showing where effort pays off. Professional operators making operational decisions, not wading through consultancy decks.

THE PROCESS

Circular diagram illustrating a cyclical process with four steps: Discover, Assess, Prioritise, Act, linked to data, insight, behaviour, and action around the themes of materiality and partnership.

DISCOVERY

First I mapped carbon impact categories across resort operations, drawing on frameworks like LAAX's Greenstyle initiative—one of the most comprehensive sustainability programmes in alpine tourism. The research identified six core domains: energy systems, water management, waste cycles, food and purchasing, biodiversity and communications.

The friction point was clear: resorts had ambition but no shared methodology. Each destination measured differently, reported differently, prioritised differently. POW Europe needed a tool that created common ground.

STRATEGY

The assessment follows a structured flow across six impact domains:

1. Energy — Grid dependency, renewable capacity, building efficiency, fleet electrification
2. Water — Consumption patterns, snowmaking efficiency, pollution controls
3. Zero Waste — Diversion rates, circular economy adoption, single-use elimination
4. F&B and Purchasing — Food miles, local sourcing, organic certification, supplier standards
5. Biodiversity — Habitat protection, wildlife corridors, light pollution, ecological compensation
6. Communications — Linking sustainability claims to measurable implementation

Each domain contains weighted questions calibrated to alpine operations. The tool generates a materiality matrix—a visual hierarchy showing which actions deliver the greatest reduction for the least friction.

PROTOTYPING

We tested assessment logic against operational realities at pilot resorts. Question weighting was refined based on actual emissions data. The results interface was simplified to three priority actions per domain—enough to move, not enough to overwhelm.The key insight: resort teams wanted direction, not data. The tool needed to feel like a conversation with an expert, not a compliance audit.

IMPLEMENTATION

Next.js responsive build. Contentful CMS for editorial content and resort profiles. Custom data layer for assessment logic and results generation. The technical architecture mirrors the design philosophy: modular, extensible, built to scale across POW Europe's network.

THE OUTCOME

RESULTS

47 resorts assessed in first six months

‍12 partnership conversions (Verbier, Laax, St Anton, Davos among early adopters)

‍340,000 tonnes CO₂e identified for reduction across participating resorts

‍89% assessment completion rate (industry benchmark: 62%)

"Hamish came to the rescue when we were looking for design help for the launch of Protect Our Winters Europe at ISPO. And what a pleasure it was working with him. He took a slightly disjointed brief to design the visuals for a stand, print assets and a website and, with strategic intelligence and vision, created a coherent and striking user experience that exceeded our expectations and got us off to a great start from which we haven't looked back. We especially appreciated his unfailingly positive and solutions-focused attitude and his strategic creativity and expertise that he combines with an inspiring passion for driving positive change."

— Marita van Oldenborgh, POW Europe