Vail Resorts Inc. has chosen not to renew its three-year commitment to buy wind-energy offset credits. Instead, the ski resort and hotel company is putting its money towards a forest restoration project, reports BizJournals.
Vail Resort’s participation in the Hayman Restoration Project, which seeks to restore forest burned in a 2002 fire southwest of Denver, was announced at the same time as the resort said it would not renew the wind energy RECs.
In August of 2006, the company became one of the largest wind power buyers in the country at the time when it committed to buying 152,000 megawatt hours of wind energy a year. The REC agreement was with Renewable Choice Energy Inc.
The REC purchase was said to offset about 211 million pounds of CO2 emissions annually.
Vail Resorts Chairman and CEO Rob Katz said the company was proud of its participation in renewable energy, but that it was time to focus on more local initiatives.
“As a company, we remain committed to addressing climate change and are focused on energy conservation across our company. However, going forward, we intend to channel our efforts on more comprehensive projects, which help protect the climate and also offer habitat and watershed benefits to local communities, such as the Hayman Restoration Project,” Katz said, BizJournals reported.
Earlier this year, Vail said it aimed to cut energy use by 10 percent by 2010.
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