ENVIROPORT 2007
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Parks and Resorts Energy Programs



As the Company's largest segment, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts has the broadest number of energy conservation initiatives in place with new ones underway.

Walt Disney World Resort

Walt Disney World Resort has been working to reduce energy consumption related to electricity, natural gas, and hot and chilled water by five percent property-wide. The program, called "Strive for Five," has yielded impressive results, saved the company millions of dollars, and reduced related greenhouse gas emissions.

  • As new facilities were added to the property or existing facilities changed, Energy Management System (EMS) controls were also updated to ensure continued energy savings. The EMS controls the heating and air conditioning systems and monitors dampers, humidity, temperature set points, and so on. By fine tuning all of these data points, the system minimized energy consumption while maintaining desired comfort levels.
  • Building tune-ups were conducted throughout Walt Disney World Resort and included re-evaluating and adjusting air conditioning and heating system temperature set points and time schedules via the EMS. Many of these building tune-ups occurred during the first year of Strive for Five, but as equipment, operations, and other changes took place, Cast Members fine-tuned settings to achieve further energy consumption reductions. Two office buildings enjoyed consumption reductions of greater than 10 percent, appreciably higher than the "Strive for Five" goal.
  • Cast Members replaced neon lights with light emitting diodes (LEDs) in many signs and decorations including numerous holiday installations. Cinderella's Castle was covered in more than 170,000 new LED white lights. Although numerous, these lights only used the equivalent energy of 12 microwave ovens.
  • At Disney's Pop Century Resort, equipment was installed to capture heat emanating from the chiller unit to heat Guest's room water. During warm periods of the year, this system reduced natural gas consumption by over 80 percent. The system is being evaluated for future expansion opportunities.

The "Strive for Five" program won the second-annual Florida Energy Achievement Award from the University of Central Florida's Florida Solar Energy Center due to the massive energy savings at the Resort. The award is presented to a company, organization, or individual that has made a significant achievement in the efficient use of energy, energy conservation, energy education, or renewable energy in Florida. The program was also recognized with a 2007 Best Practice certificate from the Council for Sustainable Florida.

Disneyland Resort

In March 2006,Disneyland Hotel made a significant investment by purchasing a Central Energy Plant (CEP) to provide power to the Resort. Within nine months of the purchase, the Hotel permanently eliminated a total of eight combustion sources, all of which produced nitrogen oxide (NOx). NOx is one of the major contributors to smog, a significant form of air pollution. The Hotel also replaced two old boilers with new state-of-the-art water heaters, which burn natural gas at a much higher efficiency than the previous system. The boilers are controlled by an EMS that controls how much energy is released based on the demand for energy within the hotel. This renovation is projected to reduce annual, natural gas usage by as much as 200 million cubic feet which is equivalent to a full year use of approximately 1,500 homes each equipped with a gas-fired water heater, dryer, and range. This improvement will result in annual CO2 (greenhouse gas), CO, and NOx emission reductions of 11,000, 240, and 30 tons, respectively.

Disneyland Resort Paris (DLRP)

Disneyland Resort Paris committed to purchasing 30,000,000 kilo-Watt hours (kWh) of electricity from renewable energy sources. In addition, Disneyland Resort Paris purchased renewable energy certificates via an independent French company.

Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL)

  • HKDL replaced incandescent lights with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in Guest rooms as well as corridors in two hotels. To date, Cast Members have installed 3,824 CFLs.
  • During the holiday season, Sleeping Beauty Castle was decorated with 100,000 LEDs, incurring significant energy savings.
  • HKDL began building tune-ups in 2006 and continued to increase these efforts on a day-to-day basis in 2007.

Tokyo Disney Resort

  • The Tokyo DisneySea Central Energy Plant provided energy to all facilities of Tokyo DisneySea Park, and operated 24 hours a day to meet energy consumption demands. The plant collects and reuses waste heat to produce steam with help from a boiler. Power is generated using a gas turbine system that is fueled by municipal gas, and provides approximately 16 percent of the power used at Tokyo DisneySea.
  • The Tokyo Disneyland Central Energy Plant, which provides energy to all facilities of Tokyo Disneyland Park, was rebuilt to increase energy-efficiency. In the past, a compressor was required at each Tokyo Disneyland facility in order to provide air conditioning, but this new facility eliminates the need for local compressors, leading to a 10 percent decrease in air conditioning-related energy consumption.
  • Cast Members turned off lights one and a half hours after park closing rather than the standard two and a half hours. The Park is currently installing LED lights in some themed fixtures, and the parks continue efforts to install new, energy-efficient light sources.
  • Tokyo Disneyland Resort network computer screens have been set to display the message "Turn your monitor off when you leave your desk," reminding the user to save energy.