The International Ski and Snowboard Federation -FIS- has published the Athlete Sustainability Guide, a new tool aimed at snow sport athletes to help them understand, communicate and reduce the environmental impact around their activity. The guide starts from a direct idea: athletes cannot solve the climate crisis alone, but they do have a voice capable of influencing teams, events, brands, federations and communities that depend on snow.
The document does not present sustainability as an abstract demand or as a search for individual perfection. Its approach is built around small actions, informed choices and leading by example. FIS encourages athletes to calculate their carbon footprint, reduce unnecessary water use, avoid single-use plastics, promote better travel, food and waste management practices, challenge unsustainable habits around equipment and speak honestly about the environmental contradictions that also exist within sport.
Snow is no longer a guaranteed stage
The guide frames climate change as a sporting issue, not only an environmental one. If global temperatures rise by two degrees above pre-industrial levels, more than half of Europe’s ski resorts could face severe snow shortages without artificial snow. With four degrees of warming, almost all of them, around 98%, would be at risk. For athletes, those figures do not only affect the landscape: they determine where they can train, where they can compete and whether certain events can take place under reliable conditions.
The impact is already visible in Europe’s mountains. In the Alps, winter temperatures are rising by up to 0.4 degrees per decade and Alpine glaciers have shrunk by around 60% since 1850. The guide also notes that around 91% of Alpine ski areas are naturally snow-reliable today, but that figure would fall to 61% with two degrees of warming and to 30% with four degrees. The future of snow sports is therefore tied to an increasingly narrow climate reality.
Mountains, water and ecosystems under pressure
FIS broadens the diagnosis beyond competition. Mountains are known as the “water towers of the world” and provide up to 60% of the world’s freshwater. Snow and glaciers feed rivers on which millions of people depend, meaning that the loss of ice and the disruption of snow cycles also threaten water security, ecosystems and downstream communities.
Environmental pressure also includes pollution and habitat loss. The document mentions the impact of vehicle fluids, road salt, waste and microplastics on mountain soils, waterways and forests. In the Pyrenees, scientists recorded up to 365 microplastic particles per square metre falling from the sky each day. Mountains cover a quarter of the Earth’s land surface and support almost one-third of all terrestrial species, but an estimated 70% of mountain habitats have already been lost.
Small choices, collective pressure
The guide brings that diagnosis down to the athlete’s routine. FIS proposes reducing unnecessary travel where possible, better coordinating team journeys, considering where food comes from, avoiding single-use products and reviewing how sports equipment is bought, used, repaired or discarded. In the responsible sourcing section, the federation encourages durability, repair, reuse, take-back programmes, recycled materials and pilot projects with clubs, federations, sponsors or brands.
The most interesting point lies in the athlete’s public voice. FIS recognises that the biggest levers depend on governments, regulations, organisers, resorts, brands and governing bodies, but insists that athletes can help move the system when they use their platform. The guide recommends sharing real progress, practical examples and lessons learned, without pretending to be perfect. Talking about sustainability, even from within the contradictions of the sport itself, can open conversations inside teams, events and audiences that might not arrive through other channels.
A strategy to protect winter
The Athlete Sustainability Guide also fits within a broader institutional line at FIS. The federation sets out three main impact areas: reducing its carbon footprint, protecting and restoring the ecosystems on which snow sports depend, and promoting circular solutions that keep materials and products in use for longer. In that logic, athletes are not only recipients of recommendations, but allies who can accelerate change within the competitive environment.
FIS is already working with national associations and organising committees to bring this agenda into events. In the 2024-2025 season, eight World Cup organising committees took part in the FIS World Cup Organisers Sustainability Tour, a space to share ideas, learn between venues and search for new ways to make events more sustainable. The guide leaves a practical message: protecting snow requires structural decisions, but also athletes capable of turning their daily experience, data and voice into useful pressure for the future of winter.
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