One of the key goals of the UIAA Climate Change Task Force is to showcase best practices and learnings from member associations.
Following recent insights into the Canadian Alpine Club's State of the Mountain report, this latest article takes a look at the incredible efforts underway at the German Alpine Club (DAV).
DAV, the world's largest national climbing federation, has shared an overview of its climate initiatives, which can be viewed here. The federation's position is incredibly proactive and thorough, a huge federal commitment to providing close support and resources to its 356 clubs and approximately 1.5 million members.
In recent years, DAV has seen first-hand the impact of climate change on its own infrastructure. These include access and water shortage issues at New Prager Hut (Neue Prager Hütte) in Austria and landslides on the access road to the Taschachlaus refuge.
DAV process
In 2019, DAV participated in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (COP2015). Maintaining it was the biggest goal. “Global average temperature rises below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” putting in effort “Limit temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
Following the approval of the Federation's Climate Resolution 2019, the focus shifted to establishing a climate strategy and concept for 2021. The first step was to mobilize people and create project groups. A diverse team of volunteers and full-time staff from chapters, regional associations and federal associations came together to work on developing climate protection strategies and concepts. In 2021, several expert committees were formed, dividing strategic and advisory responsibilities from this original group. Participating clubs varied in size and location. In the same year, a pilot project was launched to test the impact of the results on emissions.
DAV's climate strategy commits the federation to become carbon neutral by 2030. A climate budget and a climate fund have been created, the first managed at the regional level and the latter at the federal level with grants available for innovative projects. The revenue came in part from increased fees across the association. This means that for each fully paying member, 1 euro becomes a climate euro. The Federation also provided advisory guidance and financial support. The set schedule calls for using 100% certified renewable energy by the end of 2023 and reducing emissions by 30% between 2022 and 2026.
Results to date
Two-thirds of local DAV clubs have already registered a climate protection coordinator responsible for climate protection measures and emissions calculations. All of this is done according to the standards set by the central DAV. In 2022, a total of 140 local clubs, federal associations and four state associations tallied their annual emissions. The DAV Climate Fund has already funded 37 different projects. The National Federation’s 2022 Carbon Footprint Report can be viewed here.
As of 2022, the study found that the largest portion of emissions will come from transportation during courses and tours.
UIAA spoke directly with DAV to find out more specific details about individual areas of operation. The scope is to provide this information to UIAA members worldwide. Below is some specific information about cabins, travel and the challenges of implementing change across a variety of local clubs.
Lodges: Setting standards and sustainability guidelines
DAV operates approximately 325 lodges and over 200 climbing centres. For cabins, their very existence is threatened by the effects of climate change. Thawing permafrost and significant differences in temperature could destabilize foundations and cause structural problems, requiring significant investment in securing cabins and possibly even the loss of some cabins. Second, we need to make all cabins more energy efficient.
Broadly speaking, DAV reports:
- Because the basic conditions of huts are so different, there is no single measure to reduce emissions that can be applied to all huts.
- Many lodges have already improved their energy efficiency in recent years by switching to fossil fuels, improving insulation, ensuring solar systems are installed, and replacing lighting systems.
- The construction work of the DAV hut follows strong sustainability guidelines, particularly those directly funded by the Federation.
- The Federation ensures a balance between emissions from construction work and emissions from consumption and energy use.
- There are guidelines in place to make your lodge management more sustainable, such as information on climate-friendly catering.
- The huts receive a specific label (“Umweltgütesiegel”) if they operate environmentally friendly and offer local and climate-friendly products (“So schmecken die Berge”). This allows visitors to make informed choices about where to stay and prioritize visits to lodges that meet specific criteria.
- The results and analysis of emissions can be used to derive specific targets, for example the allowable average energy consumption in the DAV cabin. However, more data is needed to establish this baseline.
Individual club/sector support
As reported above, DAV has over 350 local clubs. Coordinating climate action plans across all actors is a critical task.
Here, DAV's general commitment to sustainability and climate protection builds on the high approval rates at the Annual General Meeting for the Sustainability Strategy (93%), Climate Protection Strategy (87%) and Climate Protection Concept (86%), including: It is reported that it is done as follows. Mechanisms such as CO2 fees or emissions balancing.
DAV has implemented the function of climate protection volunteers in the department. These Climate Action Volunteers are the Federation's primary point of contact for climate-related questions.
To support these volunteers, DAV provides a series of formats to support their work within the section. These include:
- Online learning about emissions balance
- Guidelines, checklists and best practices from the DAV Intranet, your primary source of information
- newsletter
- Microsoft Teams channel for information sharing
- Courses within the DAV Academy on climate-related topics (e.g. sustainable mobility)
- Monthly ‘Climate Facts’, a digital exchange format for news and best practices.
- Networking Event Organization
- Weekly “hotline” for questions about emissions balance
Travel: Improved transportation networks to make choices easier
Like most federations of a similar nature, DAV reports that travel for events, competitions and conferences is the biggest source of carbon emissions. This also filters out the emissions generated by individual climbers and climbers.
Regarding this approach, DAV reports:
- Changing habits takes time and is not an easy process.
- There are several problems with public transportation frequency in rural areas. In some cases, public transportation costs more and often takes longer than driving.
- Mobility is one of the biggest challenges and key levers to reduce emissions. However, mandating people to use public transport (at least for a certain percentage of attendees across the entire course program) can be met with resistance and is not always practical. As a countermeasure to this, some sections have already introduced standards for course programs in terms of distances allowed per day or the proportion of public tours within the program.
- Utilizing incentive schemes is not always feasible. In Germany, tax laws do not allow clubs to pay for individual train or bus tickets.
- There are many sections that do not have their own infrastructure, such as hiking centers or mountain lodges. Therefore, the only way to reduce emissions is to change the structure of the course program.
- One of the key messages is: Travel for longer periods of time, but not frequently, so that the relationship between travel distance and dates is most efficient. This mantra is easier for clubs located closer to the mountains.
With regard to implementing measures to eliminate the impact of travel, DAV reports:
- The Federation evaluated DAV training programs in terms of public transportation accessibility. New courses and event venues are selected based on sustainability criteria.
- Some modules within the DAV training program have been transferred in digital format.
- Guidelines have been created to plan courses and tours in a climate-friendly manner.
- There are also guidelines for event hosting that emphasize accessibility to public transportation.
- The DAV Summit club has set up a shared ride platform that can be used on DAV courses.
- DAV has introduced a climate-friendly travel spending policy that enhances the use of public transport.
DAV has also published online maps and information detailing public transport routes to 600 Alpine huts in Germany.
National level recognition
In recognition of its achievements, DAV was recently awarded the 2024 German Sustainability Award.
Dominik Birnbacher, DAV Climate Protection Project Manager, reports: “In many areas, we can see that DAV serves as a role model for other sporting organizations in Germany in terms of emissions balance and CO introduction.2 Establishment of a commission or climate fund. Additionally, our survey shows that many new members join DAV because of our commitment to protecting nature and the climate.”
Birnbacher concludes with remarks that will resonate with all UIAA member associations. “Balancing our identities as a sporting organization and a conservation organization remains a challenge now and in the future. We are convinced that mountain sports and nature and climate protection can all work together.”
The UIAA would like to thank DAV for the informative presentation and for the information provided in this article, which will prove useful to UIAA members currently devising or implementing their own sustainability strategies.
If you have questions or would like additional information:
DAV Mountain Protection
UIAA Mountain Protection