● From our sister site, TheSportsExaminer.com ●
The International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) governs Alpine Skiing, Cross-Country Skiing, Freestyle Skiing, Nordic Combined, Ski Jumping and Snowboard. The federation president, Johan Eliasch (GBR) is obsessed with environmental protection and conservation.
So, it was interesting to examine two reports offered by the FIS on Monday, for the FIS events worldwide and for the FIS organization itself.
For the FIS World Cup and World Championship events, the report showed an increase vs. 2023-24:
● 2023-24 season (177): 58,600.0 tons of CO2 emissions (5 categories)
● 2024-25 season (159): 63,547.9 tons of CO2 emissions (9 categories)
● Change: +4,947.9 tons, or 7.8%
FIS Sustainability Director Susanna Sieff (ITA) explains, however: “With the FIS CO2 Calculator, the accuracy of the data is now much more detailed. Therefore, the apparent increase in operational emissions for events observed in 2024/25 is due to this improved accuracy, not an actual rise in activities or environmental impact.”
Taking a closer look at the data, it’s clear that there is one overriding factor in the emissions total related to FIS events. That’s transportation:
2023-24 season:
● 177 events and 58,600.0 tons of CO2 emitted
● 88.9% from participant transportation
● 11.1% from everything else
2024-25 season:
● 159 events and 63,547.9 tons of CO2 emitted
● 62.5% from participant transportation
● 16.0% from stadium use
● 7.6% from energy use
● 13.9% from everything else
But if you look beyond the competition itself, spectator travel dwarfed everything else:
● 2023-24: 465,637.6 tons of CO2 emitted (World Cup)
● 2024-25: 421,846.3 tons of CO2 emitted (World Cup)
● 2024-25: 15,089.5 tons of CO2 emitted (World Championships)
So the question for FIS, whose prior President, Italian Gian Franco Kasper, used to say that the federation was in the ski tourism business, is what to do about spectators?
There are no answers for that yet.
There was also a study done on the FIS organization itself and its emissions:
● 2023: 2,161.7 tons of CO2 emitted
● 2023: 67.6% from transportation (all modes)
● 2024: 1,999.2 tons of CO2 emitted
● 2024: 91.6% from transportation (all modes)
A little lower in 2024, but wow. The main issue is clear and while FIS has worked assiduously to measure emissions, the question is now what to do about it.
~ Rich Perelman
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