The evidence is undeniable that greenhouse gases (GHG), such as methane and carbon dioxide (CO2), have accumulated in the atmosphere and have reached historically high levels. These gasses are creating a "greenhouse" effect and causing average temperatures to rise, resulting in changes to the earth's climate. Scientific consensus points to human activity as a significant cause of GHG, in particular the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas.

We believe REI and other businesses can contribute to the solution by reducing and eventually neutralizing the CO2 emissions that result from our operations.

By 2020 REI wants to be a climate-neutral company—that is, we will reduce or eliminate our GHG emissions or find ways to compensate for any emissions we fail to eliminate by investing in offsetting reductions. We believe that if done well, these efforts will deliver both environmental and business benefits, such as reducing costs and therefore will contribute to the long-term financial strength of the co-op.

Eliminating CO2 emissions is an ambitious aspiration, but we will work toward finding solutions. Setting an aggressive interim goal is a good way to start, and we are committed to reducing our CO2 emissions by one-third from 2006 baseline level by the end of 2009. Our goal is challenging because REI's compounded growth of over 10 percent would mean that our emission would increase by more than one third without an aggressive reduction plan.

Our GHG reduction efforts have included: energy efficiency, green power purchasesand carbon offset investments.

See the details of our Green House Gas inventoryby clicking on the segments in the pie chart: How we computed our inventory