Part 2 of A Green Zoo Series by Erin Reilly: As mentioned in the previous article, the Denver Zoo is the first of its kind in the United States to have a Sustainable Management System. What is a Sustainable Management System? According to Wikipedia, this system “takes the concepts from sustainability and synthesizes them with the concepts of management”.
Sustainability itself has three branches that include the environment, the needs of present and future generations, and the economy. Using these principles, sustainable management allows a system to run indefinitely without using up resources at a net loss. It also allows the system to maintain economic capability and fulfill the needs of present and future generations.
“Sustainable management has been created to be defined as the application of sustainable practices in the categories of businesses, agriculture, society, environment, and personal life by managing them in a way that will benefit [everyone for years to come]“, Wikipedia states.:
The Denver Zoo Sustainable Management System is made up of several parts. One aspect is a new exhibit to be called Asian Tropics. Asian Tropics, according to the zoo’s website, will be a ten acre space dedicated to elephant conservation. The site will include more than fifteen buildings and has been registered at the platinum level with the United States Green Building Council. The exhibit is scheduled to be completed by 2012.
Another way, according to the website, that the zoo is trying to be sustainable is by looking for opportunities to use its waste stream to generate energy for heat and power for the Asian Tropics site. With this system, the zoo will reduce the amount of waste going to landfills by 1.5 million pounds per year.
The website states, “[The] Denver Zoo’s biomass gasification system will be the first of its kind anywhere in the world to convert a complex and diverse waste stream into a uniform, stable fuel on a consistent basis.Once complete, this system will serve as a model for such systems at other campus-like settings, from business and amusement parks to resorts, schools and small communities.”
In addition to all of this, the Denver Zoo has hired a full time, permanent Sustainability Coordinator. This person is responsible for deciding which industries, products, and vendors will best support the zoo’s mission to be as sustainable as possible. Perhaps the most important job for the Sustainability Coordinator is managing the Denver Zoo’s Workplace Conservation Committee. This committee, or “green team” includes representatives from each department of the zoo who are responsible for coming up with strategies to keep every area of the zoo as green as possible.
In August 2008, the Denver Zoo was awarded acceptance into the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment’s Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) as a Gold Leader.
