With the training framework complete, VERDE and its partners are running outdoor clinics across Croatia, Serbia and Greece ahead of the project's close in November.

Twenty months into the Green Slopes project, the European partnership that set out to build environmental stewardship into ski mountaineering and hiking instruction has completed its research and curriculum work and is now in the field, delivering hands-on outdoor training to guides and mountain sport participants across three countries.

Green Slopes is co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ Sport programme and runs until 29 November 2026. VERDE Center for Research, Innovation and Sustainable Development, based in Kozani, leads the project's research and development strand.

What has been produced

VERDE's phase of the project, completed in autumn 2025, delivered three substantial outputs:

A literature review examining current trends and challenges in ski mountaineering and hiking. It documents the environmental pressures created by growing participation - soil erosion and compaction, disturbance to alpine vegetation and wildlife, the ecological cost of artificial snow production alongside the effect of climate change on the viability of these activities as rising temperatures reduce snowfall and disrupt biodiversity. It also surveys what is already working: technological innovation in sustainable equipment, and international races that now require participants to carry out all waste, use biodegradable ski wax and avoid sensitive wildlife areas.

A data analysis report setting out what guides and instructors across the partner countries actually need from training, drawn from structured feedback gathered through the partner networks.

The Green Slopes Framework Curriculum - the project's central output, and the document the clinics are now built on. It is organised in six chapters:

• Introduction to Green Slopes and Sustainability - including the alignment of outdoor recreation with the European Green Deal
• Understanding Mountain Environments - alpine ecosystems, biodiversity, climate change and habitat loss, and the role of mountains in global freshwater and carbon cycles
• Fundamentals of Sustainable Outdoor Practices - Leave No Trace principles, low-impact hiking and ski mountaineering technique, sustainable travel and gear selection, waste management
• Outdoor Safety and Risk Management - mountain navigation, avalanche awareness and response, wilderness first aid and emergency preparedness, weather and environmental hazards
• Environmental Education and Conservation - how to teach environmental awareness to outdoor enthusiasts, conservation strategies, community and stakeholder engagement, and conservation case studies
• Cultural and Policy Perspectives - cultural attitudes to mountains, the regulations governing outdoor activities, international standards for sustainable recreation, and advocacy

The curriculum is published electronically in English and in the partners' national languages, and is designed to be adopted by clubs and training providers outside the consortium.

The Nature Clinics

The partnership has been running its Nature Clinics outdoor workshops, delivered in two seasonal series, that put the curriculum into practice on real terrain. Each clinic is designed for approximately 30 participants and pairs skills training with practical conservation work: applying Leave No Trace principles in the field, habitat restoration, and sustainable trail maintenance.

Because the clinics are taught jointly by instructors, coaches and environmental specialists from across the partnership, participants encounter mountain sustainability from several professional angles at once, rather than as a single lecture bolted onto a technical course.

Each clinic series is accompanied by a public round table on "Contributions of ski mountaineering to sustainable development in the natural environment," held once in each partner country and attended by project partners, representatives of local and regional authorities, and mountain sport organisations.

What remains

With three and a half months left, the partnership will complete the remaining clinics, finalise the practical guidelines that distil the curriculum into concise field advice, and put the full body of materials into permanent open access so that clubs and training providers across Europe can use them after the project ends.

Green Slopes is coordinated by HPD PLATAK (Rijeka, Croatia), with partners Planinarski klub Tara (Serbia), VERDE (Kozani, Greece) and Udruga Vere Montis (Rijeka, Croatia).

About VERDE

VERDE Center for Research, Innovation and Sustainable Development is a non-profit organisation based in Kozani, Greece, working on environmental sustainability, research and education.

Funding statement

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.