With the past ten years being the warmest ever decade on record and 2015 being the warmest ever year, ski resorts are leading the way in taking action to help reverse the effects of global warming that could potentially shut down the very industry that they depend on.

Despite ski resorts not being directly responsible for climate change, they do have a responsibility and Tignes, high up in the French Alps, is leading the way even though they have one of the most snow sure ski resorts in the world.

Because of their actions, they have recently been awarded the Green Globe certification – currently the only ski resort to be listed and are keen to show that it's not the ski resorts that are causing the problems, but they are the ones doing something about it.

Patrick Thorne from Save Our Snow, a dedicated website to highlighting environmental issues in ski resorts, comments: 'Some media outlets have portrayed ski areas as the cause of the climate change that threatens their future, but in truth many of the initiatives to cut CO2 emissions have long been seen as just common sense in mountain communities, where being energy efficient, in the olden days at least, often just meant being able to afford to keep warm. But there's always more that can be done, with new ideas and technologies designed to be ever more efficient appearing almost every day.  So the challenge for many organisations is simply keeping track of just what's being done, and working out if CO2 emissions really are being cut overall or not?'

It's essentially the difference between really taking action or just publishing what's known as 'green wash' – impressive sounding reports on what you're doing which, sadly, when analysed, don't really add up to very much.

One popular approach for those ski resorts that are truly serious about 'going green' is to sign up for ISO 14001 environmental management certification, an international standard which dozens of ski companies around the world now work to achieve and maintain. 

But Tignes' lift company, STGM, which has already been registered for ISO 14001 since 2008, decided that they wanted to go further and register for Green Globe, a certification from an organisation that is only concerned about the environment.

In doing so they've joined 450 other tourism businesses across the world which are also Green Globe members, but Tignes is currently the only ski resort signed up.

So what exactly is Green Globe certification? It's a special system set up by bodies called the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and Agenda 21 and follows the principles for sustainable development approved by 182 governments during the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. 

To get Green Globe certification Tignes had to meet a set of 40 criteria that include more than 300 'compliance indicators' which essentially means things like sustainable development, supporting local businesses and environmental protection.

Examples from the literally hundreds of things Tignes has been doing on the environment include regularly improving the public transport available. Every year Tignes modernises its buses by buying a new one with the best environmental standard available. There are five big car parks so visitors are encouraged to park up and use public transport once they arrive in the resort until they leave. 

A lot has also been invested in biodiversity programs helping to preserve the fauna and wild alpine flowers and more than 100 ski lift pylons have been removed since 2008. 

Crucially, certified companies have to demonstrate significant improvement from one audit to the next – conducted every two years – to maintain their certification, so there's a real motivation to keep doing better.

Tignes say they have plenty more new ideas they'll be working on ahead of their 2017 audit to ensure they maintain their Green Globe certification.

About Green Globe: Green Globe is an international standards program. It is the only existing sustainable development and social responsibility» certification system for travel and tourism businesses, with common core evaluation criteria for all industry stakeholders. Green Globe certification relies on a partnership with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GTSC), Agenda 21, and the principles for sustainable development approved by 182 governments during the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. greenglobe.com