Greenhouse Gas and Criteria Air Pollutant Emissions
We can recycle all the plastic bottles and aluminum cans in the world, but make no mistake that the challenge of our generation is not overflowing landfills; it’s climate change. Xanterra believes that reducing its greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most environmentally significant things it can do to protect national parks and the planet. There are countless ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Clearly, the most significant source of emissions for Xanterra is from fossil-fuel-derived energy used in lighting and heating buildings, transporting guests and providing hot water, hot meals, and clean linens to those guests. All of that requires energy, most of which is derived from fossil fuels, either on-site by burning fuel oil, gasoline, and propane, or off-site at coal-fired power plants that provide electricity.
| Climate Change Primer |
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Global climate change does occur naturally; the ice age is an example. The Earth’s natural climate has always been, and still is, constantly changing. However, what the climate scientists are seeing today differs from previous climate change in both its rate and its magnitude. The temperature on Earth is regulated by a system known as the “greenhouse effect” where greenhouse gases – water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – trap the heat of the sun, preventing radiation from dissipating into space. Without the effect of these naturally occurring gases, the average temperature on the Earth would be -0.4°F, instead of the current average of 59°F. Life as we know it would be impossible.
Over the past 200 years, emissions of these gases due to human activities have accumulated in the atmosphere, where, because of their long life, they stay for centuries. As a result, since the Industrial Revolution, concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased by 30 percent, methane by 145 percent, and nitrous oxide by 15 percent. The cause of these increases has been human activities related to our increasingly sophisticated and mechanized lifestyle, in particular, the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas to generate electricity and to power factories and cars. In addition, humans have cleared more land for human use in the past 100 years than in all of prior human history. This has resulted in the loss of forests and wetlands, which absorb and store greenhouse gases and naturally regulate the atmosphere.
In effect, by increasing the amount of these heat-trapping gases, we have “enhanced” the natural greenhouse effect to the point that it has the potential to warm the planet at a rate that has never been experienced in human history. Already, the average global temperature has increased by about 1.0° F in the past 100 years, and temperature increases over the next 100 years are expected to significantly surpass any such change of the past 10,000 years.
Raising the global temperature may trigger a series of changes within the overall global climate system. For instance, global sea levels have already risen 4-9 inches over the past 100 years, and are expected to continue to rise due to increases in temperature. We are also seeing increases in severe weather events. National Park ecosystems have already been affected. The glaciers of Glacier National Park are almost gone and will be gone in less then 30 years. Such impacts of climate change could have far-reaching and unpredictable environmental, social, and economic consequences.
Xanterra believes that the climate change problem and its feared effects are among the most serious of the environmental issues that we face today.
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Total companywide greenhouse gas emissions declined significantly over the last seven years while visitation has remained somewhat flat. Total CO2 emissions have been reduced 17 percent (20.2 percent normalized for revenue) over that period.
This reduction, possibly the company’s most significant environmental achievement, can be attributed to a combination of on-site renewable energy generation systems (primarily solar PV), wind power purchases, fuel switching (from heating fuel oil to propane), extensive lighting retrofits, and strategic conservation programs (especially targeted area shutdowns), more energy control systems in rooms and facilities, and efficiency upgrades such as Energy Star-rated equipment.
The company has now exceeded its ten-year World Wildlife Fund greenhouse gas emission-reduction goal of 10 percent, and it is well on its way to reaching its 2015 Environmental Vision goal of a 30 percent reduction.
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All EPA Criteria Air Pollutants, voluntarily tracked by Xanterra, decreased significantly as Xanterra switched to cleaner burning fuels. Sulfur and nitrogen oxide emissions decreased 20.5 and 20.7 percent, respectively, since 2000.
In the past two years, Xanterra has taken its commitment to reduce air emissions in national parks to an even higher level, as exemplified by the initiatives on the following pages. (See this and following Energy, Renewable Energy, and Transportation sections of this report for details).
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Sources: Greenhouse gas emissions conversion data and EPA Criteria Air Pollutant emissions data were calculated using several sources including: the Leonardo Academy, “Emission Factors and Energy Prices for Cleaner and Greener Program,” the World Resources Institute, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration’s “Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases” program.
When Xanterra calculates its emissions, it includes all pollution produced by its operations – from vehicles, boilers and even kitchen ovens – as well as emissions triggered back at the regional public power plant from electricity usage.
Xanterra’s potential to emit Criteria Air Pollutants falls well below regulatory thresholds, which means it is not subject to regulation under the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Still, Xanterra aggressively combats pollution emitted by vehicles, buildings and regional public power plants to help keep the vistas at national and state parks clear.
Climate Change Action Plan
In 2007, Xanterra’s focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions evolved into a larger companywide Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP). Currently, the CCAP consists of an aggregation of all the climate reducing strategies and measures Xanterra has undertaken to date and a detailed assessment of meeting both short and long-term greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. This plan ties together all of the company’s efforts into one cohesive approach. A few of the most recent measures taken that are tied to the plan are outlined below.
| Select Summary of CCAP Emission Reduction Measures |
- One of the largest non-utiltiy renewable energy systems in the country, a 1 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) energy system, is being constructed at our Death Valley operations (see Renewable Energy section for details).
- Four other on-site renewable solar photovoltaic energy systems have been or are in the process of being installed at various national parks.
- Wind power energy is purchased at seven Xanterra facilities (see Renewable Energy section for details).
- Cleaner burning biodiesel (produced from soybeans) is used in boilers at three locations. Biodiesel is biodegradable, nontoxic, virtually free of sulfur and particulate emissions when burned, and produces fewer greenhouse gasses.
- On-site kitchen grease conversion to biodiesel is occurring at two Xanterra locations.
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- Since 2000, Xanterra has switched from “dirty” two-stroke engine technologies in its boats and snowmobiles to all new four-stroke engines, reducing noise and emissions and increasing efficiency by 65 percent.
- Alternative fuels like E10, a blend of 10 percent ethanol, are used to power snowmobiles and snowcoaches.
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- All in-park tour buses at the South Rim have hydrous alcohol injectors that decrease visible emissions by 66.4 percent and increase fuel economy by 19.7 percent.
- Xanterra continues to retrofit and replace fuel oil-powered boilers with cleaner burning alternative fuels, even reducing fuel oil usage at the Grand Canyon to zero by conducting 14 fuel oil-to-propane retrofits.
- Zion fuel-oil-fired boilers were replaced with an on-demand propane-fired boiler and appliances.
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- Sustainably designed “Green Suites” at Zion Lodge reduce energy usage and emissions through innovative technologies (see Sustainable Design section of this report).
- More than 50,000 lighting retrofits have occurred throughout all Xanterra operations.
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- Xanterra partners with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions to cut the company’s heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions as part of WWF’s Climate Savers initiative. Under this agreement, Xanterra becomes the first hospitality company to commit to an absolute CO2 reduction target and the ninth business to join WWF’s Climate Savers initiative.
- Xanterra participates in NPS Climate Friendly Parks Programs to help inventory, track, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in national parks. Xanterra has given presentations and participated in four Climate Friendly Parks workshops held at Zion, Everglades, Rocky Mountain, and Glacier National Parks.
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