AAI is Taking Action to Fight Climate Change – Join Us!

Our Trips and Operations are Carbon-Neutral

The warming planet has already had destructive impacts on many of our parks. Our decisions, as individuals and as large and small companies alike, collectively make all the difference in maintaining healthy parks or losing treasures that include habitat, wildlife, and glaciers.

Join us in reducing energy consumption, buying clean energy when possible, and purchasing carbon offsets when green energy is not available, and play a direct role in conserving our parks and forests.

—Dunham Gooding, President Emeritus

Sustainability, care of the environment, and climate action are priorities for AAI as a company and for each of our employees. That is why we have established the AAI Climate Initiative, an ambitious program to combat climate change. Since every pound of CO2 released into the atmosphere diminishes both the short and long-term health of the landscapes we cherish, recreate in, and work in, we use clean energy sources whenever we can, and when they are not available, we use carbon offsets and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to come as close as possible to having a zero carbon footprint.

We also encourage all participants connected with the Institute and all who love outdoor recreation to partner with us in making environmental and climate action top priorities, certainly when trekking or climbing in the mountains – but also in our daily lives. AAI is a leader in the outdoor industry and the guiding profession in the global fight against climate change, and we are working to make it easy for you to partner with us in a dramatic move to clean energy.

Here’s how we’re taking action:

1. Action at AAI’s Office

Though we operate in several states and countries, we are headquartered in Bellingham, Washington. Our building is equipped with solar panels and we use 100% clean electricity through Puget Sound Energy’s Green Power Program. We also offset the carbon emissions of our employees’ commutes and those of our errand vehicles through Terrapass, a carbon-offset program.*

2. Action on the Institute’s Trips

All of our trips are carbon neutral, with their carbon footprints offset through Terrapass.* The offsets cover the Institute’s:

• Vehicle fuel
• Fuel consumption by guides when driving personal vehicles for AAI programs
• Fuels used to power stoves in the mountains.

For our Denali and all international treks and expeditions, we make these trips 100% carbon neutral by offsetting participants’:

• Air travel from home to the program site,
• Local transportation,
• Fuel consumption for cooking in the mountains, and
• Electricity used while at hotels and lodges

3. Action by AAI Climbers & All Recreationists

The Institute encourages trekkers and climbers to participate in our Green Power programs and to purchase Carbon Offsets or RECs. Those who trek or climb with AAI can apply 50% of what they spend on Green Power and Carbon Offsets (for their trips or for life at home) as a credit to the cost of their AAI programs. Click here to learn more, move to clean energy, and join the fight against climate change.

*Terrapass is a not-for-profit that invests AAI’s carbon offset funds in programs that capture greenhouse (e.g., at landfills), develop renewable energy, and sequester greenhouse gasses (through the development of forest reserves). Terrapass is audited by the nationally recognized Climate Action Reserve.

“Preserve what you most care about. Join us in the move to clean energy, and join us in the fight against climate change.”

-Jason D. Martin, Executive Director