Planet

As advocates for and stewards of the environment, we recognize the significance of climate change and our responsibility to play a role in mitigating climate change. We acknowledge that proactively managing climate-related risks and opportunities is crucial for the longevity of our planet and the success of our business. Our Environmental Policy details the potential climate-related risks and opportunities facing Viad and notes processes we have in place for minimizing our impact on the environment. As part of our efforts to fight climate change, we make investments each year to better energy conservation and minimize our environmental footprint.

Environmental Policy

From 2018 to 2022, we invested approximately $36.5 million toward sustainability-related initiatives. Our investments in sustainability primarily relate to multiuse event equipment at GES to reduce resource consumption, as well as property upgrades at Pursuit that improve energy efficiency. In 2020 and 2021, there were significant reductions of business activity due to the COVID pandemic and our level of investment declined across the business.

As we strive to improve our environmental performance and reduce our impact, we understand the importance of measuring and monitoring our sustainability efforts. Currently, we track environmental metrics separately for our business units because the distinct services they offer make certain metrics more significant than others for each business unit.

In producing corporate events, exhibitions, conferences, congresses, exhibits and entertainment experiences, GES has a predisposition to create substantial waste. Tracking waste metrics, including landfill diversion rates, and focusing on reducing waste and diverting waste from landfills enables us to create significant impacts.

In 2019, GES diverted 12 million pounds of carpet, graphics, and general waste from landfills. GES reinstated tracking this metric in 2023, following a pause in tracking during 2020 to 2022, which had lower activity levels due to the COVID pandemic. We continue to strive toward our goal of contributing zero waste to landfills.

GES Sustainability

As an attractions and hospitality company, Pursuit’s most impactful metrics include energy consumption and efficiency metrics, as operating lodging and attractions can be energy intensive. Tracking consumption metrics as well as understanding the context behind these numbers allows us to thoughtfully assess our performance. In 2020 and 2021, lower visitation and occupancy led to an increase in resource use per guest. We are pleased with the improvement in 2022 and expect to see continued improvement in 2023 as we return to more regular volumes.

Pursuit Sustainability

¹ COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the number of guests served and room nights provided in 2020 and 2021. Given the fixed nature of many of our utilities, our per-guest and per-room-night figures have increased, however we are pleased with the improvement in 2022 and expect to see continued improvement in 2023 as we return to regular volumes.
² Number of guests served is based on attraction ticket holders. It does not include guests within restaurant, retail or other ancillary businesses.
³ Resource consumption includes consumption that supports the primary experience as well as onsite restaurants, retail, other ancillary operations, staff accommodations and related.
⁴ Fuel consumption includes fuel consumed by our boat and motorcoach fleet as well as generators to power the facilities when external electricity providers are not available. It does not include fuel consumed by support vehicles.
⁵ In 2019 we added nine new lodging properties to our portfolio, increasing our capacity, which we were unable to fill in 2020 due to pandemic impacts.