Xanterra leaves smaller trace

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

By 2020, some scientists say all the named glaciers of Glacier National Park will be gone. Xanterra Parks and Resorts, the largest national and state park manager in the United States, is making strides to combat such impacts of climate change.

Guided by Hunter Lovins, Xanterra in 2004 set bold goals around fossil fuel usage, renewable energy, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, solid waste, sustainable cuisine, transportation, hazardous waste and water.

The privately held company based in Colorado is well on its way to achieving its goals, according to Chris Lane, the company’s vice president of environmental affairs.

Aiming for a 30 percent reduction in GHG emissions by 2015, Xanterra cut emissions by almost 26 percent in 2009 (normalized for revenue, which includes onsite renewable energy generation and renewable energy purchases). Last year, it reached 48 percent waste diversion companywide and 56 percent within the national parks. Other goals have been harder to achieve, including sourcing 50 percent of its food from “sustainable” sources. 

Xanterra is using other tactics to educate the more than 18 million people who visit the national and state parks it manages. A sustainability scorecard developed by Beth Pratt, director of environmental affairs at Yellowstone National Park, shows guests the ecological impacts of retail items in the store. It’s been so successful that Xanterra plans to expand the scorecard to Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park and Grand Canyon National Park in 2010.

Yellowstone is already saving costs, according to Pratt. The national park saved $50,000 in one year by burning used cooking oil for energy, and another $70,000 through a 10-percent reduction in transportation fuel. Xanterra has more than 8,000 employees and operates more than 100 hotels, lodges, stores and restaurants within U.S. parks.