We want to hold ourselves accountable for our energy use, and in particular, for our carbon emissions. To do this, we have an energy tracking initiative that has kept track of our energy use and estimates of our direct C02 emissions over the last 10 years. We have used this data to find areas for improvement to give direction to our sustainability efforts. Sometimes this data has shown us our improvements, and sometimes it’s shown us the hard truth.
This chart shows the sources of energy use at the Outdoor Center, and the percentage each of these sources comprises of our total on-site carbon footprint. Although most of our large buildings on campus are now heated with biomass or heat pumps, we are still using propane or oil for some of our smaller or further-flung buildings. Transportation, Grooming and Snowmaking are our other biggest areas of CO2 production.
This graph shows us some good news and some of the hard truth. With increased activity, visits, and building projects, our carbon footprint went up for a number of years before peaking in 2013. After that, the effects of our new heating system and other efficiency projects kicked in and the footprint has largely dropped. The decrease from 2019-2020 shows the effect of the pandemic and the slowdown in guests. But 2020 was also a year in which we made quite a few big efficiency changes. It was our hope that our CO2 emissions would stay lower post-pandemic, even as activity and visitors rebound, and 2022 seems to confirm this.