How the Denver Zoo Became the Greenest in the World

How the Denver Zoo Became the Greenest in the World | American Solar Energy Society

Photo Credit: Denver Zoo

Denver lays claim to the greenest zoo in the world. We were lucky to have George Pond, Vice President for Planning & Capital Projects at the Denver Zoo outline how they achieved this status at WREF 2012. As Pond reminded us, It’s a zoo story–but it’s not a “zoo thing.” It’s really a story about how large facilities can transform from drains on the system to neutral or net positive in their energy consumption.
As the most popular cultural attraction in Colorado with 1.9 million guests this year, 3,500 different animals and 80 acres in Denver’s city park, the Denver Zoo has traditionally consumed a great deal of resources. The path to becoming the greenest zoo in the world started with simple activities like recycling, saving trees and the Green Team, a group of true believers. When they decided to get serious about sustainability they began by auditing themselves to have facts and figures to establish a basis for understanding and action steps. This means they don’t guess–they have hard numbers to guide them.  At one time, the Denver Zoo was one ofthe Top 5 largest water consumers with 383 million gallons a year. This was one Top 5 list where they didn’t want to see themselves included. So, they decided to change things starting with low hanging fruit in water conservation, which is critical–especially in a state like Colorado.
When Pond and his team looked at the details of the zoo’s water consumption they were surprised to learn that suspect areas like irrigation and the aquarium only contributed to 3% of the water consumption. The biggest culprit for water use were the bird exhibits which contributed to 54% of the water usage each year. The team scored a big hit by changing the schedule for the flamingo pond by reducing in half the usage taking it from 40 million to 20 million gallons a year. Although it was a very successful project it didn’t come easily. As Pond points out, the biggest impediment to becoming more sustainable isn’t technology, it’s interpersonal. It took a great deal of trust building with the bird staff to reduce consumption while still serving the birds and guests well.