Protecting Our Environment

Carbon offset F.A.Qs

WHY DON’T We JUST REDUCE EMISSIONS RIGHT AWAY?

We are working to reduce our direct emissions by adopting EV technologies, diverting waste from landfills through recycling and composting, and improving building efficiency. However, at the moment, there is no way for us to conduct our business without creating some emissions. While we work to reduce these emissions, we know that it is important for us to mitigate our climate impact today, and we are doing this by offsetting our remaining emissions in a way that supports communities around the world and the global transformation of our economy. According to the IPCC, we all need to make "rapid, deep, and immediate" emission reductions to have a chance of staying within 1.5°C / 2.7°F of warming. For emissions we cannot avoid now, we will offset.

WHAT IS CARBON OFFSETTING?

Offsetting is the mechanism through which organizations can compensate for carbon emissions generated by their business activities that are difficult or impossible to avoid, and fund activities throughout the world that are essential to meet a global goal to keep down temperature rise. It operates like a seesaw, with our carbon emissions balanced by equivalent emissions reductions delivered by projects around the world. We are monitoring and calculating the emissions associated with all resort operations. Once we have the total carbon footprint, we then work with Climate Impact Partners to support projects which reduce emissions by buying an equivalent number of carbon credits to compensate for the emissions we can’t yet reduce. This provides a key source of finance for these projects, which deliver positive impacts for people and nature alongside cutting carbon. Each emission reduction we purchase is a ‘carbon credit’ – a unit representing one tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) stopped from being released into the atmosphere or removed from it. These credits are created by projects which are validated to an ICROA-approved carbon standard and are only released for purchase when a third-party auditing body has verified that the reduction has taken place.

HOW DOES OFFSETTING HELP REDUCE THE THREAT OF CLIMATE CHANGE?

Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing global society. We all need to make every effort to reduce our carbon footprint as much as we can, and we should offset the emissions we can’t avoid. Offsetting tackles climate change by:

• Making real reductions in amounts of CO2 being released into the atmosphere that would not have happened otherwise.
• Enabling us to take action now, when time is of the essence, while we develop more opportunities to reduce the footprint of running our business.
• Providing funds for renewable technologies and energy-efficient solutions that we need across the world, which often benefit the communities most impacted by climate change but least responsible for it.
• Putting a price on carbon internally, encouraging us to do more to reduce our carbon footprint.

Does Taos's OFFSETTING PROGRAM MEET ANY INDUSTRY STANDARDS?

Yes. Our projects all follow carbon standards that meet the ICROA Code of Best Practice. These standards have established robust processes of design, monitoring, and independent verification that establish the quality of the projects, the emissions they reduce and remove, how they change "business as usual" and their additional benefits to communities. Climate Impact Partners has played an important role in the development of the voluntary carbon market and led the way in setting standards for the highest quality and impact. All the projects we support are verified to ICROA-approved standards to ensure that the emissions reductions are real, permanent, additional, unique, have established ownership, and are verified. Additionally, our CarbonNeutral® certification is achieved in accordance with The CarbonNeutral Protocol. First developed and published in 2002, The Protocol is revised and updated annually to reflect developments in climate science, international policy, standards, and business practice. It is a publicly available framework developed for business, by business, that draws together leading independent standards for greenhouse gas accounting into a practical guide to carbon neutrality.

WHAT WILL THE MONEY BE USED FOR?

The money spent to offset emissions from resort operations supports projects around the world that cut carbon emissions through the purchase of carbon credits. We are supporting Gyapa efficient cookstoves in Ghana and clean water and cooking in Guatemala. See links above for more information. These projects have to prove that they would not be viable without the income from the sale of carbon credits for companies to offset emissions through them. 

HOW CAN WE BE SURE THAT OUR PROJECTS ARE MAKING THE CO2 REDUCTIONS?

Our projects all follow carbon standards that meet the ICROA Code of Best Practice. These standards have established robust processes of design, monitoring, and independent verification that establish the quality of the projects, the emissions they reduce and remove, how they change "business as usual" and their additional benefits to communities. This means that carbon reductions are measured against a conservative baseline and independently verified to prove those reductions have taken place.

What impact do the projects taos supports have on the communities in which the projects are implemented?

Community participation is critical for the success of carbon projects in order to ensure they are sustainable for the long term. All the projects we support consult with local stakeholders before the project is implemented and get feedback from local communities about how the project is impacting them on an ongoing basis. In many projects, local communities are instrumental in running the project and benefit from the implementation of activities that reduce emissions. Community benefits include job creation and improved livelihoods, water quality improvements, reduced indoor air pollution, access to affordable and reliable energy, and improved infrastructure. In addition, Climate Impact Partners is an award-winning project developer and our regular due diligence activities are guided by this expertise – ensuring we only work with projects that maintain high standards on the ground. 

WHO PROVIDES Taos Ski Valley's OFFSETTING PROGRAM?

Climate Impact Partners delivers solutions for action on climate. It believes that carbon markets have a critical role to play in delivering action by putting a price on carbon to incentivize change and funding carbon reduction activities to meet our global climate goals. Climate Impact Partners builds on the expertise, integrity, and innovation of two companies that have led the voluntary carbon market – Natural Capital Partners and ClimateCare. Fueled by a relentless drive for rapid action and results, its global team continues to pioneer the market’s growth and set the standards for quality that will maximize its impact. Together with the world’s leading companies and quality project partners, Climate Impact Partners will cut 1 billion tonnes of CO2 by 2030 to transform the global economy, improve health and livelihoods, and restore a thriving planet. It does this by delivering the highest quality carbon-financed projects, from which it creates carbon credit and energy attribute certificate portfolios. This enables organizations like ours to offset the emissions we can’t reduce, put a price on carbon to incentivize change, and meet our climate goals.

WHY DID WE CHOOSE TO WORK WITH CLIMATE IMPACT PARTNERS?

We choose to work with Climate Impact Partners because of its reputation as an expert provider of carbon market solutions for private- and public-sector organizations to address their climate impacts. Its core mission is to deliver 1 billion tonnes of emission reductions by 2030 and we’re delighted to be partnering with them to deliver our carbon offsetting program and contribute to the transformation to a low-carbon global economy.