Farm & Wilderness has been “green” since 1939. Ten years ago we started measuring and improving our “greenness” with the help of a Greenhouse Gas Audit. Today, we are seeing significant results of these efforts.
1. Since 2009, the amount of energy needed to heat our buildings has decreased by 40%.
2. Composting of animal, human, food, and garden waste has increased over 500% since 2010, eliminating over 367 (32%) metric tons of CO2 that would have otherwise been emitted.
3. The amount of greenhouse gas emissions emitted per camper and staff member has declined by 48% over the past 7 years.
4. Since 2013, we’ve decreased annual propane use by 42%.
5. Installing wood boilers at the Farmhouse has decreased our use of #2 fuel oil by 6,000 gallons a year.
6. We eliminated 18,000 kilowatt hours of electricity consumption with the solar system at Tamarack Farm.
7. Our newest solar field behind resource produces approximately 75,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year.
8. With diligence in ensuring no food, wood, or recycling goes in the trash we’ve reduced our annual trash bill by $4,500.
9. Our “Kybos” (outhouses) save an estimated 1 million gallons of water annually.
What’s next? Ideally, we would eliminate the rest of the fossil fuel for building heating and eventually produce more electricity than we consume.