How Disney Is Becoming More Eco-Friendly
The Walt Disney Company has committed to protecting the environment in a number of ways.
Let’s discuss a few of the methods Disney uses to become more eco-friendly.
Photo: Disney
Cleaner Chemicals
Look, I don’t want to start on the wrong note here, but people are gross. We get sick, we spread germs, and bad stuff happens.
Nobody likes to think about the prevalence of germs in society, but it’s unavoidable.
Photo: WHO
Anyone with kids in school can tell you that one bad flu can wipe out an entire class.
Just last month, a local elementary school closed rather than operate with less than 50 healthy children.
Disney theme parks host a lot more children than any one school. A LOT MORE.
Photo: orlandoattractions.com
You can see where I’m going with this. Park and resort management must consider many options for maintaining the best hygiene and health practices.
Perhaps the most famous example involves Disney’s use of chemicals. You don’t need to spend much time at the pool to know that it uses chlorine.
Photo: Disney
Nobody can keep urine out of a pool, at least not as long as children swim in it. What Disney can do is sanitize the pools to make this a non-issue.
The choice of chemicals matters here, as chlorine requires more frequent usage. It’s also somewhat harsh as far as chemicals go, which is why it burns in your eyes some.
Photo: Insider.com
Bromine cleans in a deeper, safer way that doesn’t irritate most people’s skin or clothing the way that chlorine does.
Even more importantly, Disney’s use of bromine kills substantially more bacteria, which explains why you’ll find this chemical at Pirates of the Caribbean.
Photo: SF Gate
That distinctive ride smell on the water isn’t Disney piping in a scent. It’s the bromine in action!
Disney pays substantially more to use bromine instead of chlorine, as bromine is usually more than double the price of chlorine.
Photo: Disney Parks
Disney makes that trade to protect the environment. Bromine reduces Mercury emissions by up to 90 percent!
The Disney Skyliner and the Disney Monorail
This strategy ties into one we’ll discuss in a bit.
Monorail
Over the years, Disney has prioritized means of transportation that reduce the company’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Basically, Disney recognized many years ago what the automotive industry finally accepted around, what, 2020?
Sleeping Beauty Castle
As usual, Disney got far ahead of the curve because its management team must think in big picture terms.
Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort are de facto cities run by a corporation. As such, the company must consider the environment and expenses.
Photo: Playbuzz.com
Do you know what’s expensive? The price of gasoline. While costs fluctuate regularly, Disney knows how much it spends on gas for its various buses.
Do you know how Disney can reduce those costs AND do so in an eco-friendly way? It can utilize other kinds of energy for its transportation.
For example, the Magic Kingdom monorail uses a 600-volt electrical system to operate its trams.
Meanwhile, the Disney Skyliner, like most ski lifts, utilizes electric motors to generate power to move along the cables.
Disney Skyliner
In other words, these two forms of transportation free Disney from the tyranny of oil prices.
Of course, Disney still must pay its electric bill, but we’ll get to that solution in a bit.
Photo: Disney
Donations to Conservation Causes
Your head would spin if you realized how much Disney donates to charitable causes each year.
The company does more than pay lip service to the practice of strengthening the surrounding community. It speaks with its wallet.
Photo: CNBC
Disney remains the model for social responsibility in the corporate world. One of the areas where Disney donates heavily is conservation.
You shouldn’t be surprised by this revelation, given what Disney has accomplished with Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
The Tree of Life
Still, you may be surprised to learn the depth of Disney’s giving. For example, here’s a Parks Blog post from late January.
Disney proclaims $100,000 donations to five different conservation organizations in Florida.
Photo: Getty
The recipients in question are Conservation Florida, Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, Trout Lake Nature Center, and Wekiva Wilderness Trust.
While the company doesn’t proclaim every eco-friendly donation it makes, you can keep up with the broad stakes on Disney’s official site.
Photo:impact.disney.com
In fiscal 2021, a time when COVID-19 had decimated Disney’s bottom line, it still managed to donate nearly $300 million in “charitable giving.”
According to Yahoo!, Disney finished 11th in corporate charitable giving in 2022.
Photo:impact.disney.com
Remember that Disney is NOT one of the top 11 corporations in market cap.
That fact alone underscores how much Disney has committed to charitable endeavors, many of which are eco-friendly.
Photo:impact.disney.com
Solar Farms
So, about all that power Disney needs to operate the Disney Skyliner and monorail system…
During the 2010s, Disney committed to the construction of solar farms. In 2016, brought a 22-acre solar farm online.
Photo: Bloomburg
The structure included nearly 48,000 solar panels. At the time, Disney forecast that the solar farm would generate nearly five megawatts of electricity.
Since that farm went online, Disney never looked back. In 2019, Walt Disney World opened its latest solar array. This one somehow made the 2016 farm look quaint.
Photo: Disney Parks Blog
The 2019 solar farm covered 270 acres and generated 50 megawatts of power!
Yes, in only three years, Disney added 55 megawatts of solar energy, with the newer development spiking power by a factor of ten!
Photo: Livekindly.com
In 2022, the company announced its latest solar array…and its largest one yet!
As we speak, Disney is constructing twin 75-megawatt solar farms in Gilchrist and Polk County, Florida.
Those two facilities alone will nearly quadruple Disney’s current solar power outlay.
Photo: Disney
Once they go online, Disney will generate more than 205 megawatts of energy thanks to their solar farms.
At this point, Disney projects that solar energy will power 40 percent of all Walt Disney World park operations!
Photo: Disney
Disney is unlikely to stop there, either. Its commitment to eco-friendly practices all but ensures that in 20 years, Walt Disney World will operate entirely from solar energy.
Once Disney takes itself off the grid entirely, it’ll hold a claim as the most eco-friendly company on the planet. And that day may be coming sooner than you think.
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Feature Photo: impact.disney.com
