Colorado’s Avid4 Adventure is the only carbon neutral day, resident & travel camp in America.

Camp offers financial incentives for families to reduce their environmental impact

Boulder, CO. Avid4 Adventure, Colorado’s five-year-old outdoor adventure program, is taking responsibly for their carbon footprint by reducing their pollution of all types and paying carbon offsets for the waste they can’t reduce. Avid4 Adventure summer day camps introduce kids ages 5 and up to kayaking, rock climbing, canoeing, mountain biking, hiking, white water rafting and horseback riding.

“We looked at how much carbon our camps put into the atmosphere and then we figured out how we can reduce here, eliminate there and offset the rest,” says Dave Secunda, Program Director of Avid4 Adventure. “Now we are the only camp that we know of in America that is carbon neutral.”

Avid4 Adventure reduction efforts so far:

Prevented the burning of 17 tons of coal, or the weight of 42.5 minivans

Prevents 33 tons of CO2 emissions; that’s 238 male African elephants

Transportation produces the camp’s biggest carbon output, so Avid4 Adventure will offer discount coupons to families who carpool, take public transportation, bike or walk to camp. Conserving families can use the $20 per week coupon for dollars off other camp programs. For families that do drive to camp, Avid4 Adventure uses a portion of their payment to purchase carbon offsets. In addition, each staff member gets a RTD Ecopass, discounts on bikes and company vans for car pooling.

“This is an opportunity for families to reduce their kid’s summer activities impact on the environment and to learn about outdoor resources that are close to home when their child wants to go again to places where they went on camp days,” says Secunda. With rising gas prices this summer driving great distances for outdoor adventures will be expensive.

The goal of offsets and incentives to families is to make the company not just carbon neutral, but carbon negative.

“Avid4 Adventure is a pioneer as an environmental conscience summer camp because they try to understand their impact and take responsibility for it,” says Pete Chandler of Colorado’s Green Heart Institute. Chandler hopes to see other programs and schools follow Avid4 Adventure’s lead because he says, “They’re practicing what they preach.”

Avid4 Adventure inspires life-long active outdoor lifestyles and environmental stewardship through personal development experiences and family adventures, designed around the logistical needs of parents. Avid4 Adventure programs include summer camps, multi-day and family trips, and a school program that brings the outdoors to school, instead of bussing the kids to the outdoors. Visit www.avid4.com for more information.