Climate Kegs – Carbon Neutrality Campaign

Project Overview

I led RMU’s carbon neutrality initiative by partnering with Climate Neutral to evaluate company-wide emissions. This carbon footprint assessment spanned three hospitality venues, international production sites in Sweden and Vietnam, and both domestic and global logistics operations. While initial funding challenges prevented implementation of official carbon credit offsetting, this foundation evolved into “Climate Kegs,” a customer-facing campaign aimed at supporting reforestation in ski regions through hospitality-driven sustainability.

The Challenge

In 2023, I was tasked with advancing RMU’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2025. The project required building a company-wide emissions baseline across a decentralized supply chain. This included third-party manufacturers, international freight, B2B and D2C distribution channels and RMU's three own hospitality venues. With operations  from North America, Sweden and Vietnam, calculating our carbon footprint proved complex. Despite establishing an emissions model, budget limitations restricted our ability to invest in offical carbon credits or obtain official Carbon Neutral certification.

The Solution

Collaborating with an appointed RMU climate led and the Whistler marketing team, I redirected the project into a philanthropic initiative that aligned with RMU’s community-based hospitality model. We developed the “Saving the Ski Industry, One Beer at a Time” campaign, transforming the carbon neutrality goal into reforestation projects supported through customer engagement. Building on the success of RMU’s Karma Kegs (where beer proceeds supported local charities), we partnered with One Tree Planted to plant one tree for every dollar raised. As a result, each Climate Keg event would generate roughly $750 in beer revenue, across RMU's three hospitality venues, translating to 750 trees planted per keg. This initiative delivered measurable environmental outcomes while deepening RMU’s brand purpose through community-driven sustainability.

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What I Did

• Led RMU’s carbon neutrality initiative in collaboration with Climate Neutral, assessing CO₂ emissions across retail production (Sweden & Vietnam), international/domestic freight, and three hospitality locations.
• Shifted initiative away from CO2 Neutrality towards in-house philanthropic community focused iniatives. Created an engaging, community-driven campaign focused on local environmental restoration and ski industry sustainability.

• Directed a cross-functional team (climate lead + marketing lead) to design and launch Climate Kegs, a sustainability campaign merging environmental impact with customer engagement.
  • Supported team production of  branding and messaging for the campaign, including the slogan: “Saving the Ski Industry, One Beer at a Time.”
  • Supported creation of public marketing materials, and produced finalised campaign page archived here.
• Initiated partnership with One Tree Planted, contributing to local reforestation efforts through:
  • $1 = 1 tree planted
  • Each keg generated approximately $750 in revenue, resulting in ~750 trees planted per keg (at $1 per tree).
  • 'The average tree absorbs an average of 10 kilograms, or 22 pounds, of carbon dioxide per year for the first 20 years."