Reducing energy consumption saves money—which is a good thing. But these companies are looking beyond the bottom line to reduce their footprint and protect local culture

CO-WINNER
Hotel Chain: Vail Resorts

It's no surprise that climate change is a major concern at a company which owns five ski resorts. Two years ago, Vail Resorts decided to take action by offsetting the entire corporation's electricity use. For every megawatt-hour consumed at Vail's ski slopes, golf courses, hotels, and offices (approximately 150,000 per year), the company purchases credits that support the development of wind farms, mostly in the western United States. The windmills add clean, renewable power to the U.S. energy grid, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 211 million pounds per year—the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the road. Vail is also reducing its energy use by getting employees to turn off lights and computers at night, shutting down sections of buildings in slower seasons, and banning vehicle idling for longer than five minutes. Travel tip: One dollar of each season pass, lift ticket purchased online, and room night goes to the National Forest Foundation, a nonprofit partner of the U.S. Forest Service (vailresorts.com).

CO-WINNER
Small Resort: Cristalino Jungle Lodge

Almost single-handedly, Cristalino owner Vitoria Da Riva Carvalho has brought the world's attention to her swath of jungle in Brazil's Amazon Basin. In 1992, she bought 1,730 acres and built a lodge in a region that is one of the most biodiverse in the Brazilian Amazon. Eight years later, when loggers threatened to purchase a nearby plot of old-growth forest, Carvalho scraped together the money to buy it herself and subsequently created a 24,000-acre private reserve of primary forest that borders a state park which she also helped to create. Travel tip: Birdwatchers flock to this lodge, since more than 550 avian species can be spotted (cristalinolodge.com.br).

HONORABLE MENTIONS IN PRESERVATION (ENVIRONMENT/CULTURE)

Airline: Virgin Atlantic Airways
Richard Branson's company is at the forefront of the search for alternative sources of jet fuel. He has committed all his airline and rail profits over the next ten years to a fund that will invest in renewable technology (virgin-atlantic.com).

City Hotel: Montage Laguna Beach
This Southern California hotel devoted nearly half of its 30 acres to public parkland, allowing access to beaches that had been hidden behind a trailer park for more than 60 years (montagelagunabeach.com).

Cruise Line: Disney Cruise Line
The Disney Wonder was the first cruise ship to utilize a revolutionary hull coating that minimizes surface resistance and increases fuel efficiency (disneycruise.com).

Large Resort: Evason Phuket & Six Senses Spa
Since Six Senses took over this Thai beach resort in 2001, it has cut energy use by 30 percent (while adding features and facilities) by changing timers on lights and pumps to reduce use at peak times, solar-heating the water, burying electric cables to reduce energy loss, and using the design properties of a waterfall to cool parts of the hotel (sixsenses.com/evason-phuket.com).

Tour Operator: Journeys Within
This Southeast Asia company builds cultural experiences into all of its trips—visiting a Khmer dance class in Cambodia, a rice paper producer in Laos, or a weaving village in Vietnam (journeys-within.com).