How Disneyland is working to reduce the park’s greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable practices based on new company policies being put in effect
When someone brings up “Disneyland,” thoughts immediately turn to its thrilling rides like Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad, and It’s A Small World, as well as the delectable treats: churros, popcorn, turkey legs, and beignets. As a Disney enthusiast as well as a committed environmentalist, I was interested in exploring how Disney, one of the world’s largest companies, is addressing the global climate crisis.
I interviewed Disney's Environmental Integration Manager, Lotus Thai, to uncover the truth of Disney’s commitment to environmental responsibility, and the concrete actions they are taking to reduce their emissions.
Disney's Commitment to Environmental Responsibility Ms. Thai gave me the inside scoop on what the parks are doing to help the environment and mitigate their emissions, stressing how seriously Disney views the climate crisis as she detailed exactly what is being done to promote sustainability at the parks. First, I asked Ms. Thai about Disney’s environmental and sustainability goals. She told me that, in 2020, Disney’s Corporate Citizenship and Environmental Sustainability set a goal for all parks to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Fully reaching their target goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 would require Disney to reduce their annual emissions by 1.8 million metric tons of CO2 (based on their 2019 baseline emissions data), resulting in a 46.2 percent decrease in emissions from direct operations from their 2019 baseline emissions. To tackle this laudable goal, Ms. Thai shared that Disney’s strategy for reducing its emissions can be broken down into three groups: (1) what is the energy the resort is using directly (e.g., how much energy does it take to power the rides and keep all the lights on every day), (2) utility company energy emissions, and (3) ensuring that Disney’s food supply chain is environmentally friendly. Since setting its goal in 2019 and identifying these three areas of focus to target, the company has had a general downward trend in its overall emissions, with COVID-19 playing a significant role in the decrease of emissions in 2020 and 2021. However, 2022 saw a significant increase in emissions as the park first reopened after COVID. Nonetheless, new measures and initiatives are currently being implemented that should still make it possible for Disneyland to reach net-zero emissions by 2030. Tracking Disney's Emissions Progress Curious about how Disney tracks their emissions in relation to their goal, I asked Ms. Thai about the specific actions Disney has taken to reduce their emissions. She shared that, in 2018, the company developed worked to get a baseline for where the company was “currently at [in terms of their emissions] and what… it [would] take to get us to these [climate emissions] goals [by 2030], and if these goals are even possible,” (Thai, Lotus. Interview. Conducted by Holden Hilal. 22 September 2023). During the interview, Ms. Thai also explained how their team worked to develop a bar graph to track their carbon emissions, which serves as an effective roadmap to track the company’s annual progress toward its goal.
(https://impact.disney.com/app/uploads/2023/06/2030-Environmental-Goals-White-Paper.pdf) Sustainable Practices Implemented by Disney Ms. Thai also informed me that Disney has implemented numerous sustainable practices in an effort to reach their 2030 goal, including converting all the lightbulbs in the parks to LED bulbs to reduce emissions, as well as adding food waste bins at the Hungry Bear restaurant and Galactic Grill for any uneaten parkgoer food, which redirects the food to feed animals rather than ending up in the landfill through a program called the Animal Feed Amendment.
In addition, the park has started introducing a larger selection of plant-based meat alternatives to transition away from utilizing food options with large carbon footprints, like beef. In fact, the park recently overhauled its food system, updating their menus and committing to donate uneaten Disney Hotel buffet food to reduce its food waste impact.
Along with phasing out the use of red meat to reduce the park’s supply-chain emissions, in 2021, Ms. Thai’s team also launched an environmental art challenge where employees have the opportunity to utilize any unused or unneeded items to create art for a competition to win $2,500. The "waste art" pieces, which are judged by the public, are created with the goal of promoting sustainable practices and habits. Challenges like these are a great way to get the public involved and invested in Disney’s march toward net zero by the end of the decade. Fluctuations in Emissions Signs of hope emerged in 2020, as emissions declined from 1.81 million metric tons of CO2 in 2019 to nearly 1.3 million metric tons in 2020. This decline, while a step in the right direction, in 2020 and 2021, which saw an even further drop down to 1.19 million metric tons of CO2, did not last after the COVID-19 pandemic came to an end. In fact, emissions climbed up more than half of the way back to 2019 levels in 2022, with CO2 emissions reaching 1.58 million metric tons of CO2 that year. Ms. Thai, however, seemed confident that, despite this spike in emissions, the new initiatives being employed at the park would help to further reduce emissions in the coming years, maintaining the trajectory to reach net-zero emissions by 2030. For instance, in 2021, the park instituted an initiative called Project Zero, which was a competition to have zero percent of the company’s waste end up in the landfill. 32,000 cast members worked in teams to collaborate to come up with how to get different regions of the park to zero waste, sharing their successes and strategies to maximize the company’s success. The program has already reduced a large portion of waste, ranging from 60 percent waste reduction all the way to 90 percent waste reduction, especially thanks to an annual cast-member training program covering waste sorting, high-level emissions discussions, water usage discussions, and other talks about how to best contribute to zero-waste. Disney is always looking for ways to improve their energy use and promote sustainable practices, as they understand the importance of their influence on the global population and humanity’s battle against the climate crisis. Like Walt Disney once said, “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make that dream a reality.”
| Holden Hilal
