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). |
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.
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