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Adventure Travel Company Goes 100% Renewable

October 5, 2006   |   21 Comments
REI Adventures announces it will purchase more than 52,000 BEF Green Tags next year.

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Seattle and Portland, Oregon [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) expects to purchase more than 52,000 Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) Green Tags starting in 2007. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of top renewable energy purchasers, the announcement would place REI among the 20 largest purchasers nationally.

"With its new carbon-neutral travel program, REI Adventures is making it easy to travel without worrying about the climate-related impacts. This is a significant step for any company, even one with REI's tradition of environmental stewardship."

-- Dan Lieberman, Center for Resource Solutions, Green-e program manager
Additional Information
21 Reader Comments
Comment
1 of 21
October 5, 2006
Since I don't get to travel much, can I sell "green credits" too? I would like to do my part to free REI Adventures customers from worrying about the climate change they could then continue to cause.
Comment
2 of 21
October 7, 2006
Dear El Rucio,

You don't get "green credits" for doing nothing. You get them for doing something meaningful. REI's purchase is quite meaningful. 52,000 Green Tags supports the annual output of about 17 megawatts of wind turbines. If we want to see more wind facilities built in the U.S., we need to continue to send signals to the folks who build and finance wind projects that they are more profitable than coal projects.

REI's purchase is an important act that can help move us away from reliance on polluting fossil fuels. We are all in this together. I, for one, applaud REI's leadership.

Rob Harmon
Vice President - Renewable Energy Programs
Bonneville Environmental Foundation
www.b-e-f.org
Comment
3 of 21
October 9, 2006
They are supporting 17 megawatts of wind, which changes the energy mix in the United States. They are changing everyone's fuel mix. The atmosphere is not concerned with where the electrons flow. It is concerned that we move toward renewable fuels and away from fossil fuels. REI's purchase helps us do just that.

Rob Harmon
Comment
4 of 21
October 9, 2006
I see. They are sending signals (i.e., money) if not actually changing their own or anybody else's fuel use. My not traveling may not be as obvious a symbol they could point to, but the effect of sending some of the money to me is the same. I'm not traveling so they can. They want to make wind profitable so they can continue to use other fuels.
Comment
5 of 21
October 10, 2006
Think of it this way. I woman starts an organic apple business. She borrows money, she plants a crop, and after a while she gets her apples. She goes to the market and meets a buyer who buys the apples. She did not know when she borrowed the money or planted the apple trees, who would buy the apples. It is a market and she assumed someone would buy them. She took a risk and she was rewarded.

It is the same with the Green Tag market. Developers build these projects assuming they will find a buyer for the Green Tags. It is only fair that when they find one, we applaud a market that works.

Rob Harmon
Comment
6 of 21
October 10, 2006
They are "supporting" 17 MW of wind, which would have been in the energy mix anyway. As you said, they are only helping to make it more profitable.
Comment
7 of 21
October 11, 2006
El Rucio,

You wrote, "The lender has to be paid back, because other people buy the apples."

I don't understand what you mean.

Rob
Comment
8 of 21
October 11, 2006
Calling the purchase of green tags "guilt offerings" is definitely more honest and as I acknowledged before it helps make green energy more profitable (that's why Enron invented them!).

Rob's analogy doesn't work: The lender has to be paid back, because other people buy the apples.
Comment
9 of 21
October 11, 2006
El Rucio, I appreciate your cynicism. Those who use the most energy (produce the most carbon) have the biggest opportunity AND responsibility to reduce energy use. Merely throwing money at green certificates seems like a cop out if one continues his carbon intensive lifestyle.

Those who have resources are also in the best position to invest in energy efficiency - avoiding energy use is still the best option. REI should be retrofitting buildings and promoting energy efficient business practices. Al Gore would be more credible by videoconferencing vs. flying on airplanes, and divesting or at least retrofitting residences rather than lecturing the rest of us while just throwing money at carbon offsets.

Having said that, well off persons and responsible entities SHOULD fund putting renewable energy on line that have a verifiable, REAL reduction of carbon emissions. Over time, these "guilt offerings" can affect the energy mix.
Comment
10 of 21
October 12, 2006
Regardless of the motivation to purchase green tags- a PR move, guilt or a sincere expression of ideals- Green Tags ARE market drivers for Renewable Energy Project Development.
The assumption that these tags will be sold on the open market helps utilities acquire financing for a Green Project without being forced to significantly raise the rates customers will pay per kWh.
Without a market to sell a green tag, which =$20 =1 MWh clean electricity generated = 1,400 lbs Co2 kept out of the atmosphere, then the only way these green projects would get built is if everyone's electricity rates were raised 2 cents per kWh. Most would revolt against an increased electricity bill and the utility may be forced into building more of the polluting but "economic" coal or diesel plants that have gotten us into such a mess in the first place.
Due to REI changing their behavior and supporting this market others, El Rucio, are able to continue doing nothing, including paying higher energy bills.
Comment
11 of 21
October 12, 2006
I buy Green Tags and I don't do so out of guilt.

I do so because my monopoly utility provider delivers a product to my door, more than half of which comes from fossil fuels. The utility does this for a number of reasons, most of which have nothing to do with me. I intend to continue to purchase electricity, although I try to use it efficiently. Regardless of how efficiently I use it, I will continue to be drawing power from the grid. Rather than sitting around and feeling guilty about that, I am choosing to create demand for an equal amount of electricity to be delivered into the grid from renewable energy resources.

This is not about guilt. It is about being responsible for my actions.
Comment
12 of 21
October 12, 2006
I am not condemning profit making nor support of wind energy. I am simply stating clearly exactly what you describe. Buying green tags (which are certificates of energy going to other buyers) alleviates one's guilt by providing extra money to support wind developers.
Comment
13 of 21
October 12, 2006
El Rucio also writes, "It's a donation to a for-profit entity."

I fail to understand why you have a problem with a for profit entity making a profit for building a wind farm. There are hundreds of coal plants on the drawing board across the U.S. Do we want those plants built? If not, than we need to recognize that what will determine, in no small part, whether wind or coal gets built, is the economics. If renewable energy is not profitable, than we should expect all that venture and development money to look for other sectors of the economy for investments.
Comment
14 of 21
October 12, 2006
El Rucio writes, "But the green tag buyer doesn't get anything except a certificate of appreciation."

I completely disagree.

Green Tag buyers are concerned about their carbon footprint. What they want is to know that their dollars are going to support a specific amount of renewable energy entering the grid. They want to take responsibility for their negative environmental impacts (which we all have) by doing something positive in proportion. It is difficult for me to comprehend why we would do anything other than support such a responsible act.
Comment
15 of 21
October 12, 2006
But the green tag buyer doesn't get anything except a certificate of appreciation. It's a donation to a for-profit entity.
Comment
16 of 21
October 12, 2006
El Rucio writes, "The lender did not buy the apples, but expects to be paid back -- with interest -- with the money earned from selling the apples. "

This is precisely what happens with a wind farm. The wind farm developer borrows money and the lenders expect to be paid back. The developer sells two products, the electricity and the Green Tags. Those two streams of revenue are used to repay the debt.
Comment
17 of 21
October 12, 2006
The lender did not buy the apples, but expects to be paid back -- with interest -- with the money earned from selling the apples.

With community-supported agriculture, the lender also receives the produce, but that's not the situation you described, nor is that analogous to green tags either.
Comment
18 of 21
October 13, 2006
Tom Elliott said (Oct. 11):

"[A]voiding energy use is still the best option. REI should be retrofitting buildings and promoting energy efficient business practices."

REI is doing exactly that. Here's a quote from the FAQ that accompanied the company's press release:

"While the purchase of green power helps reduce our carbon dioxide emissions, we also recognize the need for further energy efficiencies throughout our business.

"Our efforts center on utilizing new energy efficient lighting and other technologies in our retail stores, increasing our focus on green building strategies and considering energy-efficient transportation options."

REI's purchase of Green Tags was to offset the impacts of its adventure travel business, which was chosen precisely because it is a part of the company's operations for which it is extremely difficult to reduce energy intensity (air passengers generally don't get to choose whether or not to fly on the most energy-efficient jets).

Tom Starrs
Comment
19 of 21
October 13, 2006
The cynicism is companies like REI fostering the idea that you can have your cake and eat it, too. Enron invented green tags. It wasn't to make the world a better place, but a purely cynical move to exploit consumer anxiety.
Comment
20 of 21
October 13, 2006
El Rucio,

I find your choice of words like "illusion", "guilt", "sacrificial atonement" and "absolution", and your sarcastic comments about "struggling" wind development companies more cynical than thoughtful.

If wind energy were, as you say, "adequately subsidized" than why are there still hundreds of coal plants on the drawing board?

The voluntary market for green power and Green Tags is a national market with millions of customers that is pumping billions of dollars into new renewable energy projects, changing the mix of energy resources in the United States and lowering the country's contribution to Global Warming. There are national rules (from Green-e) in place to ensure that those contributions are real and meaningful.

With all the things going on in the world that are worth standing up and complaining about, I find it, frankly, sad that you would choose the voluntary green power market as the target for your cynicism. These folks are your allies, not your enemies.
Comment
21 of 21
October 13, 2006
The fact remains that the buyer of the green tags gets nothing except a certificate of gratitude for helping to fund wind energy development. That is not a negative or positive statement. So why the prickliness?

Obviously, the illusion of "offsetting" one's use of dirty energy is central. Otherwise, you could simply help the wind companies out by investing in them and sharing their profits. But guilt (or the need to feel responsible) demands sacrificial atonement; possible financial gain would go against that need. So the wind companies (struggling entities like Florida Power & Light, Scottish Power, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan) -- already adequately subsidized to more than cover costs -- not only sell energy to the grid but also sell it again in the form of green tags so responsible consumers can go on using the same energy as always but now with a certificate of absolution.
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