Sustainable development

What sets the Villé Valley apart is its tranquility and 18 traditional villages : pretty villages with stone lintel houses, the winemaking village of Albé, the hamlets of Steige and Urbeis etc.

Villé Valley Tourist Board works to an eco-friendly and responsible charter fuelled by sustainable development !

Here are just some of the things that our team has put in place to reduce its ecological footprint and be eco-friendly.

Paperless. The Tourist Board is a mine of information which means it's full of paper. So how do you deal with all the printing ? Our team has found a solution we can all agree on. We print some of our brochures on request: your documents are ready in a flash. That means we can significantly reduce how much paper and ink we use and how much waste we produce. All our printed materials are approved by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification and adhere to a private protocol promoting sustainable forest management.

Disposable paper is also used for drafts then disposed of in yellow recycling bins. We try to reuse all our used flyers, cardboard boxes and brochures to give them a new lease of life. A long-term environmental asset. When we receive requests for documents, we prioritise emails and paperless as printing causes a lot of pollution. We recycle our empty ink cartridges with a specific company. Since putting these measures in place, we've been even more motivated to change our shopping habits and keep improving.

Let's hit the road. Audrey, Christelle, Pauline and Geoffrey are a perfect car pooling team for any trip or external meeting. Not only does it encourage inter-school relationships but it also avoids multiple vehicles being used for no reason.

Every year our team tries to make our Tourist Board more eco-friendly, which is why we're always looking to improve and constantly seek out eco-friendly and sustainable alternatives.

Shop local. Our Tourist Information centre has opened a gift shop with local products made in Alsace and (almost exclusively) in our Valley by our beloved and passionate producers to support local businesses and give the local economy a boost following the pandemic. The Villé Valley lives for local. We want to promote local sale channels as they cause far less pollution.

Every detail counts. The bags, packaging and decorations used for the products we sell in the shop are eco-friendly too. We've gone for quality over quantity and use kraft paper bags and packaging. Reusable and recycable materials.

If you're looking for the full-on Villé Valley experience, here are a few top tips :
Hike happy. Our Vosges mountains mean our area has fantastic signposts, markings and appeal. People flock here for our fabulous forests and diverse hikes but we all work together to protect our natural treasure. Forests and hikers can come together in harmony if they stick to a few rules whilst out. We've come up with an eco-tourist guide to tell you what to do so as not to disturb the forest welcome committee. We encourage our tourists and locals to take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints, keep nothing but memories.