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Thursday 21 November updated on 11-21-2024 at 8:06

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01Les Arcs DNA

The origins of an original community

To talk about our future, we began by looking back to whence we came. Les Arcs, a resort in the plural, sets the tone from the outset.

The resort of les Arcs is the fruit of a visionary project, born in the spirit of a collective of particularly creative and committed avant-garde men and women. We can talk of an architectural Utopia, so determining a factor was the social vison in les Arcs in the way the development was conceived and in the life of the resort.

Les Arcs’ creators, the property developer Roger Godino and the guide Robert Blanc, were mountain born and bred and were therefore particularly attached to the beauty and continuity of the area. To build the various villages of Les Arcs from scratch, they naturally chose architects and a leader, Charlotte Perriand, who were also strongly influenced by this high-altitude scenery.
Together, the founders built a vision of what this new leisure destination should be. A vision built around strong concepts, still as modern and inspiring today and which still nourishes the «Spirit of les Arcs» so dear to the pioneers.

This attachment to the land, humankind’s place in the natural world gave rise to Les Arcs’ underlying principles

• Humankind and its place in the natural environment are at the heart of the project.
• Concentrating the living space and integrating it into the surroundings to leave the focus on nature.
• Democratising access to skiing.
• Providing holidaymakers with a cultural element and an opening onto the realm of the arts.
• Creating completely pedestrianised «villages» and neighbourhoods, leading to harmonious living and a particular liveliness.
• Providing holidaymakers with a cultural element and an opening onto the realm of the arts.
• Being visionary, innovating and leaving room for the imaginary.

This history and these values explain les Arcs’ attachment to establishing a responsible development strategy. It is the cornerstone of the legitimacy of our commitment on social awareness issues.

Our Statement

02Governance

A PLURAL GOVERNANCE!

There is strength in numbers and in Les Arcs we have understood this! Since our recent Flocon Vert certification, we have been jointly leading several working groups and commissions in collaboration with our elected officials, our ski area, our professional partners and the Tourist Office.

GREEN FLOCON STEERING COMMITTEE

Following our certification, we were rated on various criteria and we are following our action plan on each theme specific to the certification (governance, biodiversity, accessibility, communication, waste, etc.).

RESPONSIBLE DESTINATION COMMITTEE

This working group discusses topics under the prism of responsible tourism, particularly on the communication part and how to make our actions visible. These different working groups have emerged after the work of our elected representatives on their vision of the territory.

03Our partners

OUR RESPONSIBLE PARTNERS

They have helped us or simply made us grow thanks to their knowledge and expertise.

MOUNTAIN RIDERS

We have been working with this happy collective since 2018 on various projects and events such as our recent Flocon Vert certification (December 2020) or the organisation of our Stop Waste Tour which has more than 250 participants every year. In 2022, we are renewing our collaboration with the "Adopt 1 Spot" action, with the association Zéro déchet sauvage. This action allows us to create a mini laboratory on a very precise perimeter and to understand the evolution of the number of waste. We chose the area near the La Nova residence in Arc 1800. The first collection took place in May 2022, there will be 2 per year and each time a survey is carried out.

Join the association!

PROTECT OUR WINTERS France

This association helps to highlight the climate issue in the media. The team actively works on disseminating the right information, especially on strategic issues such as mobility in our mountain destinations. We often relay their messages and we work together on access to our resorts by soft mobility. In Les Arcs, more than anywhere else, this is a key issue as it is possible to come by train from the European capitals. We will be delighted to welcome their general assembly next January!

Join the association!

LES PASSEURS

These mountain troublemakers have created two magazines to imagine the future in the mountains; expert stories mixed with design fiction on serious topics such as zero carbon. We were delighted to be the partner of the first magazine and we hope that others will follow. Knowledge is power!

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04Our Flocon Vert

Awarded in December 2020, Les Arcs is the first resort in Savoie to be awarded the Flocon Vert label by the Mountain Riders association.

This label marks the environmental commitment of the resort and supports the coordination and commitment of all the players in the area to carry out actions on a territorial scale. Re-evaluated every 3 years, Les Arcs will be required to take increasingly demanding measures.

Created in 2011 by Mountain Riders, this label helps mountain resorts to adopt more eco-citizen behaviour. It is awarded according to criteria that respect these 4 themes: local economy, social and cultural, governance and destination, environment and natural resources.

+ More information on this label

05What we are giving up

Because saying no can also be a step forwards!
We have already taken a number of decisions to come into line with our values and responsible conscience.

We have therefore decided to:
  • Not build any more tourist beds in the les Arcs area,
  • Stop marketing outside Europe and to favour promoting our destination to a local clientele (France, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands),
  • Switch off street lighting at night in Bourg Saint Maurice,
  • Limit our firework displays to just two dates: 31 December and 14 July (instead of 12 previously),
  • Become a calm town => reducing the mileage in town and driving at 30 KPH