Xanterra Parks and Resorts.

Fossil Fuel Energy

Using energy efficiently reduces emissions, enhances guest service and saves money. It even helps Xanterra do its part to protect national security, by helping the country reduce dependence on foreign sources of fossil fuels. Since 2000, Xanterra has aggressively pursued energy efficiency and conservation through numerous initiatives. Thoughout 2005 and 2006, Xanterra continued to launch numerous energy efficiency programs.

One of the company’s most significant resource reduction successes is the 14.2 percent reduction in total electricity consumption (17.5 percent normalized for revenue), due largely to the numerous conservation and efficiency programs implemented over this seven-year period. A small portion of that savings is due to a decrease in energy usage at Everglades (caused by hurricane damage).

Increases in cleaner burning propane and natural gas are attributed largely to technology retrofits that eliminated “dirty” fuel oil boilers for building heating, hot water and steam generation.

The company’s “dirtiest” fossil fuel, fuel oil—which emits more sulfur and nitrogen oxides, as well has higher amounts of particulates—continues to decrease in usage, down 26.5 percent. The same trend is reflected in statistics normalized for revenue (down 29.3 percent), showing that this “dirty” fuel is in fact being phased out of Xanterra operations through reduced consumption, fuel switching, and increased use of biodiesel.

While natural gas and fuel oil usage continue to decrease, diesel fuel and gasoline have increased. This increase is despite the company’s efforts to increase fuel efficiency standards. We have not identified a concrete reason as to why this has occurred other than the fact that the company continues to purchase yet more vehicles each year: increasing fleet size while still using older vehicles as long as possible. Fortunately, transportation fuels represent relatively minor portions of Xanterra’s total energy usage.