From heating and air conditioning to lighting our stores, REI's use of electricity and natural gas equated to 19,514 tons of CO2 in 2006. While the natural gas burned in our stores is a direct emission, we also count any fossil fuel emissions from the generation of electricity as part of our inventory.

Our primary strategy is to reduce energy use by aggressively investing in energy efficiency in new construction and existing stores and buildings. This business decision reduces long-term costs and exposure to future energy cost increases.

Electricity—Calculated 18.5%

REI's electricity consumption was calculated based on the kilowatt hours from electricity bills for our stores, headquarters and distribution center. The data provides a baseline for setting energy consumption goals across the cooperative. We used the EPA Power Profilerand the location and energy use of every store and facility to compute the CO2 emissions. In Washington State, because of the large percentage of our usage and the significant differences between utilities generation mix in the Northwest, we used KWhr usage by location and the CO2 emissions per KWhr for each utility as reported to the Washington State Department of Community Trade and Economic Developments (CTED) for 2005.

Natural Gas—Calculated 1.9%

REI uses natural gas primarily for domestic hot water and some space heating. The use of natural gas is part of our overall energy intensity goal. Because it represents 2% of our total CO2 emissions, we have not yet set a specific goal in this area.