YOUR BEN’S BUS SKI TRANSFER IS CARBON NEUTRAL!
We genuinely care about the environment and our climate. It was one of the reasons Ben started Ben’s Bus. The mountain roads are too often clogged with thousands of cars polluting our clean mountain air.
Climate Change and Global Warming are having an undeniable effect on ski resorts. By travelling on one of our shared transfers, your carbon footprint for getting up the mountain will already be minimal.
However, we’ve gone a step further and now fully offset the carbon emitted by our buses. Conventional carbon offsetting schemes have their flaws, so we’ve devised our own way of reducing CO2 emissions.
We convert our vehicle emissions into a monetary value, using conventional carbon calculators. However, instead of buying ‘carbon credits’, to be sure our money will actually reduce CO2 emissions, we”ll donate the £7,000 / ski season to the charity SolarAid – although we won’t as we’re going to double that and round it up to £15, 000 just to be sure!
The award-winning SolarAid helps provide sustainable, renewable energy systems to villages in Africa, reducing their use of polluting and dangerous kerosene lamps and generators. Here are a few of their fantastic initiatives:
Light a Village: installing affordable home solar systems and developing a scalable, sustainable business model for energy as a service.
Health facilities: Plug and play solar systems power handheld medical appliances to be used in rural health facilities
Solar Entrepreneurs: Creating a local market by training and supporting men and women within the community to become solar entrepreneurs.
Tackling e-waste: Training and equipping local repair technicians to fix non-working solar lights. This helps keep them out of landfill.
REDUCE YOUR IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT WHEN YOU FLY
You can help by reducing your impact on the environment yet further by making some small gestures when you fly to your ski holiday. Collectively, the ski community can help keep our ski resorts open for future generations by making some changes to the way we travel.
We’ve written a blog post with lots of suggestion on how you can further lower your carbon footprint.
BEN’S BUS CHARITIES
In addition to our carbon neutrality scheme, Ben’s Bus supports a number of charities in the UK and abroad. As a member of the sporting and travel community, we believe we have a duty to give something back.
When you book a shared airport ski transfer with us, we’ll ask you if you wish to donate 25p to charity. If you do, Ben’s Bus matches that 25p. So each booking, whether it be from Grenoble Airport, Geneva Airport or Lyon Airport, will result in a total of 50p going to good causes. We have a blog post here showing how much we raised at the end of the 2023 / 2024 ski season.
The 4 charities that Ben’s Bus and its customers have supported over the years are listed below.
Ben’s Bus itself also likes to help a youth sports club. This year we are delighted to be sponsoring the U11’s Wessex Giants
We also try to make a one off payments each year to contemporary causes, such as meals for the NHS during the height of the COVID Crisis, or the Red Cross to help Ukrainian refugees.
In total, Ben’s Bus and our customers have together given over £12,500 to charitable causes.
SOLARAID
Prior to our carbon offsetting scheme, we gave SolarAid a percentage of the donations by customers to SolarAid.
Our customers have raised £1, 351 towards this charity and Ben’s Bus Ltd has donated a total of £1, 912.
WATER AID
WaterAid is a charity with initiatives in over 37 countries around the world. They mainly operate in Africa and Asia by improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene to those that need it most. A quote from their website reads “We tackle the crisis from all angles. We work with local partners to deliver clean water and toilets and promote good hygiene, and campaign to make change happen for everyone everywhere.”
Our customers have raised £1, 351 towards this charity and Ben’s Bus Ltd has donated a total of £1, 712.
SHELTER
Shelter is a UK homelessness organisation. A quote from their website reads “Shelter helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness through our advice, support and legal services. And we campaign to make sure that one day, no one will have to turn to us for help.”
Our customers have raised £1, 351 towards this charity and Ben’s Bus Ltd has donated a total of £1, 712.
BRITISH SNOWSPORTS FUND
Ben’s Bus has been helping out our young snowsports stars for a few years now by offering free seats on our shared ski transfers out of Geneva Airport and Grenoble Airport to a few select athletes so they can train in resort. In 2016, we decided to take our support a step further. We became an official supporter of the British Snowsports Fund, a great funding initiative set up to support Britain’s future Olympians and the development of emerging British snowsports talents. We’re hoping that this will raise the profile of skiing in Great Britain whilst helping to fund our up-and-coming stars.
Our customers have raised £974 towards this charity and Ben’s Bus Ltd has donated a total of £1, 274.
YOUTH SPORTS CLUB SPONSORSHIP
In addition to the charitable funds raised by our customers and matched by us, Ben’s Bus itself sponsors the Wessex Giants, an under 11 football side playing in the south Somerset youth league http://www.wessexfc.co.uk/ They play their home games at Walton on the Somerset levels in the shadow of Glastonbury Tor. A statement from the club reads “The core of the team have been together for a few years under head coach Elliot Foster and assistant Matt Hanley. This season has seen the addition of some exciting new players and new sponsorship from Ben’s Bus which has provided smart new kits and assistance to fund training arrangements. Many thanks to Ben’s Bus. The Giants will wear their shirts with pride, challenge local teams and most of all, keep active and have fun playing football!“
