GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK—Xanterra South Rim, L.L.C., operator of lodges, restaurants and activities at the South Rim in Grand Canyon National Park, has joined Arizona Performance Track. The program is a voluntary partnership between the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), businesses and other regulated entities that recognizes and rewards environmental leadership for going above and beyond the minimum requirements of the law.
According to ADEQ, Xanterra South Rim was selected to join Arizona Performance Track for reducing water usage, solid waste sent to landfills, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as increasing the amount of recycled content in products it uses and sells. Xanterra has also committed to a 50 percent waste diversion from landfills, zero hazardous waste generation by 2015, and to a preferred green vendor program.
The Arizona Performance Track is modeled after a national EPA program that recognizes “Performance Track Corporate Leaders.” Benefits of participating in the Arizona Performance Track include reduced inspection frequency, flexibility of permit conditions and consolidation of reporting requirements. Companies eligible for the program must demonstrate a history of compliance, a comprehensive environmental management system (EMS), a pollution prevention program, in addition to performing two past and four future projects with quantifiable environmental benefits.
Xanterra South Rim’s affiliate—Xanterra Parks & Resorts—was selected by the Environmental Protection Agency as the 2006 Performance Track Corporate Leader. Xanterra was the only company to receive the recognition this year and was only the fourth company to receive the designation since its creation in 2004.
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-roomnight and per-dollar revenue bases. Ecometrix is the tourism industry’s first environmental performance metrics. The model defines annual totals of resource consumption and divides that total by total annual rooms occupied and companywide revenue, allowing Xanterra to focus on environmental goals that are measurable to a high level of accuracy.
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