Green Disney - part 1

"Landscapes of great wonder and beauty lie under our feet and all around us. They are discovered in tunnels in the ground, the heart of flowers, the hollows of trees, fresh-water ponds, seaweed jungles between tides, and even drops of water. Life in these hidden worlds is more startling in reality than anything we can imagine. How could this earth of ours, which is only a speck in the heavens, have so much variety of life, so many curious and exciting creatures?”

—Walt Disney (1901-1966)

While on our recent Disney trip, I was surprised to see several "green" initiatives being put into practice. Biodegradable cardboard straws are used instead of plastic, at least in some areas of the parks and resorts, and in-room recycling is encouraged. We found this in our hotel room on the first day:

I loved that guests were encouraged to save their plastic bottles, alumimum cans, and newspapers, and that housekeeping staff follows through with the recycling (I asked Barb, our room attendant, about this). Many of the park's garbage containers had separate disposal areas for plastic as well. Parks like Animal Kingdom and resorts like Animal Kingdom Lodge provide natural habitats for about hundreds of species, many endangered, while also educating millions of visitors. (Just last month, the AKL welcomed two Ruppell's Griffon Vulture hatchlings, the first of this threatened species bred at the Florida park.) And the trains in Disneyland now run on biodiesel fuel that starts as cooking oil in the park's restaurants and hotels.

Corporately speaking, Mickey has gone green. The Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund distributes money to nonprofit organizations worldwide that help wildlife and wild places. The popular fairy Tinkerbell is now a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Energy's "Kids Saving Energy" program. And Disney has partnered with The Nature Conservancy to create the Disney Wilderness Preserve. This 12,000-acre area offers a model of ecological restoration and is one of the largest off-site wetlands mitigation projects ever undertaken in the United States.

But Disney is quick to point out that you don't have to be a gazillion-dollar corporation to make a difference; throughout Animal Kingdom, guests get small tips here and there, all of which add up to helping preserve our planet. Next time, we'll take a look at some of these!