Emissions from passenger transport are the main source of CO2 when it comes to outdoor sports. To tackle this, Protect Our Winters (POW) Europe hosts a European Mobility Week.

The car is still the most popular mode of transport to access outdoor areas for sports and recreation. About 70% of emissions from outdoor recreation come from transport. For this reason, POW Europe is launching a European wide POW Mobility Week (March 28 - April 3), engaging the outdoor community in finding creative and impactful ways to reduce its transport emissions. This week is focusing on being fun and raising awareness and will be followed-up by a policy-level campaign later this year.

During POW Mobility businesses and individuals are encouraged to bring down their transport emissions to a maximum. Individual outdoor sport lovers are encouraged to move sustainably throughout the entire week, tracking  their movements through an app by our partners Active Giving and sharing their sustainable travel stories (#POWMobilityWeek) on social media. This will be accompanied by film screenings of POWs athlete ambassadors, showing sustainable travel sports movies, and the chance to win prizes for the best sustainable travel stories and the most kilometres travelled sustainably. Prizes include travel bags, ski tickets, snowboards, a POW merchandise pack and an e-bike to get moving sustainably. While the sign-up process for brands to take part is still open, companies that already confirmed their participation are Burton, Nidecker, Picture Organic Clothing, Deuter, Specialized and Icebug, as well as Ruka and Pyhä ski resorts. These brands are engaging their employees and customers in creative ways, by running educational workshops on transport, showcasing different sustainable transport options, running employee competitions on most sustainable travel to the office during the week, introducing job bikes and bike support schemes, and community breakfasts for employees who come by bike. Many of them are also involving their athletes to take part and share their own stories. At the end of the week both outdoor sports lovers and businesses will be able to make more informed decisions on their mobility behaviour and better understand our transport emissions footprint.

“At POW we live by the belief that taking action for the climate should also be fun. Therefore we are launching POW Mobility Week, one week of action to tackle the biggest contribution of outdoor sports activities to climate change: transportation.” says Sören Ronge, POW Europe coordinator. “Changing our transport behaviour on an individual level from plane to train or from car to bike can significantly help to reduce emissions. By encouraging people and companies to take part, tracking our travels and giving away some prizes we connect something good for the planet with something fun, while educating our community on this pressing issue."

POW Mobility week is part of a wider mobility concept at POW Europe. Earlier this year we launched a Sustainable Travel Hub, a website to raise awareness, provide solutions and push for the necessary policy changes. The hub is a work in progress and will grow through-out the year, providing information on easily accessible outdoor destinations, a carbon calculator and concrete information on how to travel more sustainably. Later this year we will complement this work with a policy level campaign to connect these individual level actions to systemic impact and calling for the necessary policies and regulations to be put in place to make sustainable transportation the new normal. 

Under the slogan "Reframe your journey" POW Europe is showing that taking the train or riding the bike to get to the trail can be fun and that the journey is actually part of the adventure. POW Europe will unite outdoor resorts, transport operators and the wider outdoor community to reduce their transport-related carbon footprint and reflect on their travel behaviour.

Head to https://protectourwinters.eu/ to find out how you can take action and get aboard. Slow down and enjoy the ride.

#POWMobilityWeek