DENVER—Xanterra Parks & Resorts has appointed Beth Pratt environmental affairs director in Yellowstone National Park. Pratt is responsible for continuing and strengthening the concessioner’s environmental initiatives in the park including energy, water and waste management, pollution prevention, sustainable cuisine, sustainable design and more. Xanterra operates lodging, restaurants, gift shops and activities in the park.
Pratt joined Xanterra after more than eight years as vice president and chief financial officer for the Yosemite Association in Yosemite National Park, where she developed educational programs that promoted environmental stewardship. During her career in environmental management, she has designed and instituted waste minimization and recycling programs, created and maintained a compliance program for an industrial facility, and conducted training programs in recycling, safety, hazardous communications and emergency response.
Pratt graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Boston with bachelor’s degrees in management and biological anthropology. She also earned a master’s in business administration from Regis University in Denver. In 2007, she traveled to Japan as part of a month-long Rotary International Professional Exchange to study business and national park operations.
Unique Ecologix Program
Xanterra’s environmental management program, called Ecologix, has earned recognition from a variety of industry and environmental organizations for its depth and success. The company uses its own highly refined performance metrics model—called Ecometrix—to define resource consumption on annual per-room night and per-dollar revenue bases. Ecometrix is the tourism industry’s first environmental performance metrics. The model defines annual totals of resource consumption, allowing Xanterra to focus on environmental goals that are measurable to a high level of accuracy.
A few of Xanterra’s recent initiatives in Yellowstone have included setting a company-wide CAFÉ (corporate average fuel economy) standard of 35 miles per gallon for all passenger vehicles, converting a 1930s White Co. Touring Bus to propane, beginning the process of identifying more than 11,000 gallons of used cooking oil for conversion to biodiesel to reduce petroleum fuel dependency, converting some diesel-powered vehicles to biodiesel, replacing ethylene glycol (toxic antifreeze) with propylene glycol in several hundred vehicles to reduce danger to wildlife, diverting more than 60 percent of its waste stream, and developing a local procurement program—particularly in its foodservice operations—to reduce the effects of long-haul transportation.
The company’s encouragement of sustainable farming practices also results in lower emissions, reduced waste, resource conservation and protection of local streams and groundwater. The company reduces and recycles waste in all areas of construction and has completed a LEED-certified housing project.
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