GREENWOOD VILLAGE, COLO.—Its tracking mechanism may not be the most sophisticated in the industry—it consists of a master spreadsheet file—but there may be no better company in the world at tracking its environmental impact than Xanterra Parks & Resorts. For almost 11 years now Xanterra has been tracking everything from its carbon emissions to the percentage of solid waste diverted. Xanterra calls its tracking system “Ecometrix.” It falls under the company’s larger “Ecologix” program. Introduced in the company’s most recent sustainability report is yet another term—“Ecometabolism”—which is defined as “a measure of resource usage normalized by annual dollars of revenue or per room night.”
Whereas Xanterra collects and reports absolute data—a tally of actual total resources consumed, pollutants emitted, or waste generated—Ecometabolism defines overall environmental impact per unit of product (tourist-related activities, which include rooms, restaurants, retail, transportation, and support facilities) while accounting for company growth or reduction in size due to acquisitions or divestitures.
Chris Lane, vice president of Environmental Affairs, Xanterra Parks & Resorts, says Xanterra’s focus on data collection from the more than 30 properties that it operates allows it to know where it has improved and by how much, and where opportunities for greater efficiency exist. The type of data tallied by Xanterra’s team of environmental engineers using Ecometrix covers areas ranging from consumption of electricity, natural gas, gasoline, diesel, propane, fuel oil and water to sustainable cuisine purchased and environmentally preferable retail products sold.
Takes Months to Sift Through Data
“We dedicate a lot of resources to [data tracking],” Lane says. “Three of us work part-time on it a couple of months a year. It takes seven months to vet all of our data. We have our data third party certified. We publish it in our sustainability report.”
Xanterra’s most recent sustainability report is its 2011 report which primarily includes data analysis that covers 2000 to 2009. During that time span, Xanterra reduced its carbon emissions Ecometabolism by 19.3 percent. Absolute carbon emissions decreased 20.9 percent. Xanterra is well on the way to reaching its 2015 Environmental Vision goal of a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. From 2000 to 2009, Xanterra improved its waste diverted per room night from 2.3 pounds to 9.2 pounds. The total volume of solid waste was reduced by 32 percent. Sustainable cuisine purchases increased from $1.4 million to $5.7 million. Renewable energy provided 14.1 percent of companywide electricity.
Whereas water consumption can be tricky for Xanterra to track given the wide variety of businesses it manages (from lodging to a cruise line), Lane says Xanterra’s carbon emissions data is “rock solid.” “We know our scope one and two,” he says. “Carbon costs money so it is easy to track.”
Other accomplishments noted in Xanterra’s most recent sustainability report:
• In 2009, Xanterra’s corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) was 25.1 mpg, a 25 percent increase from 2002.
• Hazardous waste generation declined more than 95 percent from 2008 to 2009.
• The company retrofitted inefficient and polluting diesel-powered steam locomotives at Grand Canyon Railway to run on clean-burning 100 percent waste vegetable oil.
• In Death Valley the company installed its fifth and largest solar photovoltaic system, a 1.23 MW system that generates enough electricity to power 100 percent of the Furnace Creek Resort during the day.
• At Yellowstone, instead of shipping waste vegetable oil off site, it is now plumbed directly to boilers to heat buildings.
In order to determine whether its environmental programs are effective, Xanterra certifies all of its Ecologix environmental management systems through the International Organization of Standardization using the ISO 14001 environmental management system standard.
Xanterra will release more up-to-date data at the end of this year when its next sustainability report will be published.
Click here to access the company’s most recent sustainability report.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
