The Alpinist Film Festival is a mid-winter highlight here in Jackson Hole. With film showings over three nights, January 17-19 at Teton Village's Walk Festival Hall, followed by the People's Choice screening on January 20th at Jackson's Center For The Arts, this year's festival promises to be better than ever.

The point of this post, however, isn't to plug the Alpinist Film Festival, which always sells out, as much as it is to recognize their efforts to stage a carbon neutral event. In fact, according to the press release, the Alpinist and sponsor Patagonia are going to do more than just become 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.

Here's a little more detail about the offsetting scheme:

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…

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.

Kudos to the Alpinist and Patagonia for making a statement to Jackson Hole about the importance of making an effort to reduce one's carbon footprint.

Carbon Neutral Journal's kudos are brought to you by Grand Targhee Resort.

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