The Leader in Wilderness Education is Now a Climate Leader

2 January 2007
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NOLS offsets carbon emissions from student courses

Lander, WY – The National Outdoor Leadership School, the leader in wilderness education, training, and outdoor ethics for over 40 years continues to walk-the-talk on environmental stewardship. NOLS announced today that it has partnered with NativeEnergy to offset 100% of the estimated carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from its electric use and heating at its facilities around the world. NOLS is also offsetting all student ground travel from NOLS facilities to the roadhead. From the NOLS website students and the school’s 100,000 alumni are being encouraged to use a state of the art Travel Calculator to figure out their carbon footprint and offset the global warming pollution from the travel involved with all of their outdoor adventures.

This investment in renewable energy credits will help finance the construction of the Owl Feather War Bonnet Wind Farm on the Rosebud Sioux Tribe reservation in South Dakota and the Penn England Family Farm Methane Digester in Williamsburg, PA.

“Climate change is beginning to threaten every corner of the globe. As the science has become stronger we realized it was time to act.” said Bruce Palmer, Director of Admissions and Marketing at NOLS. “Working with NativeEnergy allows us to further our educational mission by offsetting our carbon emissions, and providing our students with an opportunity to put the environmental ethics they develop at NOLS to work.”

“NOLS, by investing in our unique “Help Build” model, is helping to bring brand new renewable energy sources to market, not just subsidizing already successful projects.” says Tom Boucher, President & CEO, NativeEnergy. “NOLS is a well known leader in outdoor education, leadership and environmental ethics, so we’re excited to offer them the ability to add ‘climate leader’ to their list of accomplishments.”

The Owl Feather War Bonnet project represents a considerable opportunity for the Rosebud Sioux tribe to develop a sustainable homeland economy in harmony with core cultural values. The Penn England Digester will help the farm to manage manure better while decreasing fuel use on the farm and taking a big step towards sustainability. NOLS is helping to build these important projects by purchasing a share of the renewable energy credits and CO2 reductions they are estimated to generate over their operating life.

NOLS invites its students and alumni everywhere to take the same proactive approach and visit www.nols.edu to offset their travel, auto, home or business emissions by helping to build new renewable energy projects that reduce the amount of fossil fuels used to generate electricity.

About NOLS
Founded in 1965 by legendary mountaineer Paul Petzoldt, the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is the leader in wilderness education and sets the industry standard for responsible, high-quality educational expeditions. NOLS provides an awe-inspiring, transformative experience that develops active, positive leaders with lifelong environmental ethics and outdoor skills to more than 10,000 students each year. A private non-profit school, NOLS runs 10-day to school-year-length courses on four continents. NOLS students, ages 14 to over 70, explore the most remote wilderness the Rocky Mountains, Idaho, Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Alaska, Western Canada, Mexico, Patagonia (Chile), India, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Baffin Island have to offer. College credit and scholarships are available. For more information, call NOLS at (800) 710-NOLS (6657) or visit the web site at www.nols.edu.

About NativeEnergy
American Indian majority-owned, NativeEnergy is a leading national marketer of renewable energy credits or “green tags,” and direct CO2 offsets, offering individuals and organizations a means to compensate for their global warming pollution, or to effectively power their homes and businesses with renewable energy. NativeEnergy’s patent-pending business process brings upfront payment to renewable projects for their estimated future green tag output, enabling its customers to help directly finance the construction of specific new wind farms and other renewable energy projects, such as tribal wind projects and methane digesters and wind turbines on America’s family dairy farms. These projects reduce our reliance on fossil fuels to meet the nation’s electricity needs. NativeEnergy is the choice of leading environmentally and socially responsible organizations, including the film AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (www.ClimateCrisis.net), Ben & Jerry’s, Clif Bar, Stonyfield Farm, Interface, Aveda, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, Co-op America, NRDC, the Clinton Global Initiative, Bonnaroo Festival, thousands of individuals, and now NOLS! NativeEnergy also offers Green-e certified green tags from operating wind farms and Climate Neutral Network certified offsets from operating CO2 mitigation projects. Online at: www.nativeenergy.com.

Jeanne O'Brien
PR & Partnerships Manager
NOLS
284 Lincoln St
Lander, WY 82520
800.710.6657 x 2236
307.349.0595 cell

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