–2008 AFF to be Carbon-Neutral Event–
–Patagonia Underwrites Carbon Offsets–
Jackson, Wyoming – December 4, 2007 – Since shifting to 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper for its award-winning magazine in the Spring of 2006, Alpinist Magazine has sought other ways to help preserve the places in which adventure athletes play. Today, Alpinist announced that The 2008 Alpinist Film will offset its estimated carbon footprint with the purchase of high-quality carbon credits generated by renewable energy projects. The outdoor clothing company Patagonia, the 2008 Festival’s presenting sponsor, will underwrite the costs associated with making the event carbon neutral.
All energy consumed by the 2008 Festival–from the travel of the speakers and the audiences to snow removal, the delivery of films and the ink consumption for posters and banners–is accounted for in the estimated carbon footprint. In order to eliminate unaccounted carbon, the AFF purchased an additional six tons of offsets, twenty-five percent more than its estimated footprint.
An analysis of The Alpinist Film Festival’s proposed carbon footprint was provided by Jackson, Wyoming’s, Teton Power. This carbon-footprint audit led to the selection of the Charlotte, Vermont company NativeEnergy as the provider of carbon offsets for the event. With funding from Patagonia, the AFF purchased thirty tons of carbon credits from NativeEnergy, which will apply them toward reducing the installation and sales costs of a wind-turbine project in the Midwest.
Patagonia Vice President of Marketing and Communications Rob Bondurant said, “At Patagonia, we’re working hard to avoid complacency in all we do. When we saw the opportunity to help The Alpinist Film Festival have a carbon-neutral footprint, we jumped.”
Teton Power’s founder and CEO, Mike Miller, concurred. “It’s only fitting that a festival celebrating the mountain lifestyle, surfing, and snow sports takes the lead in accounting for its environmental impact,” Miller said.
NativeEnergy provides offsets from small- and utility-scale wind projects as well as farm-methane-capture projects. They also help to design projects that create sustainable economic benefits for Native Americans, Alaska Native Villages and other local communities, and that help family farmers compete with large agribusiness interests. The AFF’s purchase of thirty tons of carbon credits from NativeEnergy will help support the sales and installations of German-designed wind turbines remanufactured and customized for Midwest conditions.
“With up-front funding from NativeEnergy reducing turbine costs to an acceptable level, these turbines will help farmers reduce their long-term electricity costs, while helping to stabilize the electricity grid with distributed, small-scale power generation,” said NativeEnergy’s Kevin Hackett.
“As people who live and play in the mountains, we see first-hand the effects of global warming,” said Alpinist Film Festival director Christian Beckwith. “Offsetting our carbon footprint allows us to begin addressing our impact as consumers, and as adventure athletes.”
“It’s inspiring and encouraging to see other organizations, like The Alpinist Film Festival, working hard to live an examined life, doing what they can to cause no unnecessary harm,” said Bondurant.
The 2008 Alpinist Film Festival will feature its signature Snow, Surf and Stone nights January 17-19 at Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village, Wyoming. On Sunday, January 20, a fourth evening, The People’s Choice Ceremonies, will feature the People’s Choice award winners from the previous three evenings at the Center for the Arts in downtown Jackson. Tickets for The 2008 Alpinist Film Festival will go on sale in the coming weeks, and additional information can be found online at www.alpinist.com or by calling the Alpinist Film Festival at (307) 734-0600.
About The Alpinist Film Festival
The Alpinist Film Festival celebrates the adventure lifestyle across disciplines and generations with three nights of film in skiing, surfing and climbing. The Festival’s mission is to advance the art of cinematographic storytelling as it underscores the unity among the adventure lifestyle communities. A portion of every year’s proceeds are donated to charities that help preserve the places of our inspiration. Because one of these places is our planet, beginning in 2008, the Festival will purchase carbon offsets to counteract its carbon footprint.
About Alpinist Magazine
Hailed by Italian climbing legend Reinhold Messner as “The best climbing magazine in the world today,” Alpinist Magazine is an archival-quality, quarterly publication dedicated to world alpinism and adventure climbing. The pages of Alpinist capture the art of ascent in its most powerful manifestations, presenting an articulation of climbing and its lifestyle that matches the intensity of the pursuit itself. Alpinist has been awarded three Maggie Awards, for Best Quarterly/Consumer Division, Best Overall Design, and Best Electronic Newsletter, and was featured in a seven-page article in Outside Magazine (“The Purists”) in March 2005. The magazine’s editorial and publishing offices are based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and online at www.alpinist.com.