The Walt Disney Company has had a strong legacy of natural resource conservation for sixty years, making it a pioneer among American companies in thinking about, and caring for, the environment. For the last eighteen years, our Environmentality program has promoted resource conversation efforts across the Company and has, through a wide variety of initiatives, helped educate Disney Guests and consumers on the importance of a healthy environment.
Last year, Disney President and Chief Executive Officer Robert A. Iger appointed an Environmental Council of senior executives from across the Company.The Council is putting into place a comprehensive plan to analyze and implement sustainable long-term strategies for minimizing Disney's impact on the environment within an ambitious corporate growth strategy. The Council includes members from a wide variety of academic and professional backgrounds, including biologists, chemists, engineers, and government affairs specialists. Together, they are taking a measured approach to the complex and important set of tasks at hand, frequently seeking expert external advice as part of the policy-making process.
As the following report lays out, Disney's enhanced policies will aim to optimize the Company's operational impact on the environment through the measurement and reduction of waste, fossil-fuel use, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as improved eco-system protection. The Environmental Council sees 2008 as a year in which systems are put into place, measurements are greatly refined, and new initiatives are kick-started to both establish and begin to meet reduction goals.
The Council also expects the Company to play a bigger role in inspiring environmentally positive behavior, using its creative strengths and influence to inform, empower, and activate employees, business partners, and consumers. These initiatives will be wide-ranging, rolling out gradually over time and will be designed to be both sensitive to, and have a maximum impact in, the many different markets in which Disney operates.
As part of this process, the Environmental Council, under the leadership of Senior Vice President Disney's Environmental Affairs Dr. Beth Stevens is working to integrate environmental issues into Disney's decision making, to enact innovative operational solutions that can be applied across the Company and the many industries it works in, and to develop new stories and experiences that make positive environmental action an even greater part of the lives of kids and families around the world.
Even as the Environmental Council was convened and began its work last year, Cast Members and employees were hard at work across the Company implementing initiatives to reduce waste, cut energy use, and conserve resources. In each section of this year's Enviroport, the first edition to be entirely paperless, we'll present where we plan to go, followed by examples of how we reduced our impact in 2007.
