Walt Disney World Resort to "Green" All Resort Hotels by Earth Day 2008

[Figment!]

Disney the Green Standard

TC Palm
July 12, 2007

In Florida, The Walt Disney Co. has taken the lead in greening its hotels. Two of the first four hotels to receive state certification in March 2004 were Disney resorts in Orlando.

Nearly a quarter of all Green Lodging-certified Florida hotels are Disney-owned.

Disney expects to certify all 18 of its Florida hotels by Earth Day 2008.

"The biggest piece we're missing is really making sure that cast members understand what we're doing in case guests ask," said Denise Leeming, who oversees labor and scheduling at the resort. "We need to train our cast members, making sure they can have that conversation. If we can't share the program with our guests, then we've missed half the opportunity."

[JPL]

Great News Let's hope some guests take the message home with them

[snifflesmcg]

That's great!!! I just hope that more hotels take after them. I'm glad Disney took the initive.

[kaerbear178]

Just out of curiousity - what exactly are they doing to make the resorts green?

[kakn7294]

There are a multitude of things that they can do such as use low-flow bath fixtures, use energy efficient lighting and appliances, reuse towels and linens rather than replacing them daily, recycle and use products made from recycled materials, and install A/C units that shut off when no movement is detected in the room. Many of these things are in place already. I believe that POFQ is one of the Disney resorts that is already certified green.

[Remzlightyear]

With the governor signing acts to make Florida "greener," our state is becoming more progressive every year. Disney certainly is an example. Now if we could just get those darn property taxes lowered.

[lockedoutlogic]

With the governor signing acts to make Florida "greener," our state is becoming more progressive every year. Disney certainly is an example. Now if we could just get those darn property taxes lowered.

I hate to tell you...but since I own a home in the north and one in Orange County, Fla....I can tell you that your property taxes are neither high....nor are ever to be lowered.

Think of it as the price you pay for living in the wealthiest, most advanced society in the history of Earth.

Memebership has it's privileges....and annual fees.

Though the our prop taxes in florida have expanded at a disturbingly large rate over the past several years...

But it's good to see that Fla is taken more enviro-friendly approaches....everyone will have too in the near future...might as well get ahead of the wave (literally)

[lockedoutlogic]

The AC is an incovenience...but usually by the time people go to bed it's 62 degrees in the room at night anyway....

I hope that Disney also follows my suggestion:
confiscate all H3, Escalade, Navigator, Expedition, and Yukons and melt them into scrap for toaster parts....
They could put a pavilion in EPCOT showing the cars being melted down...Edu-tainment!!!

[jedigrrrl]

Think of it as the price you pay for living in the wealthiest, most advanced society in the history of Earth.

Have you been to Hialeah?!? Agua, Fango, y Factoria. La ciudad que progresa.

Seriously, though, the AC thing totally worries me!! We sleep with the AC on 60 degrees(or whatever is the lowest setting, I just hold down the DOWN button til it stops.) The minute it turns off, it gets unbearably hot in the room. Since I HAVE TO sleep with a fan on at home and they do not have fans, then I need the AC to run all night. Maybe they could put fans in all the rooms. We can't sleep if it's not cold. It would be uncomfortable to arrive into a stuffy room, but they tend to cool down pretty quickly, so I am not so worried about that or the other things.

[Terra]

There are a multitude of things that they can do such as use low-flow bath fixtures, use energy efficient lighting and appliances, reuse towels and linens rather than replacing them daily, recycle and use products made from recycled materials, and install A/C units that shut off when no movement is detected in the room. Many of these things are in place already. I believe that POFQ is one of the Disney resorts that is already certified green.

I totally agree!!!!!
And they can always use organically made linens/towels and even uniforms.
I wonder as well if that means they will or already do use organic/biodegradable cleaning supplies as well and energy efficent washers/dryers?

[Horizon93]

I think that we have strayed a bit off topic. The original post does not specifically address AC. It is mentioned as part of a list of great ideas here:

There are a multitude of things that they can do such as use low-flow bath fixtures, use energy efficient lighting and appliances, reuse towels and linens rather than replacing them daily, recycle and use products made from recycled materials, and install A/C units that shut off when no movement is detected in the room. Many of these things are in place already.

I think an overall effort on many fronts would indeed have an impact. As has been said, we are talking about thousands of rooms. The Swan has the AC sensors, and if it wasn't that I joined DVC I would still be staying there, and I love my AC.

I guess we DVC members are a little green with the towel situation.

[IloveDisney71]

[quote=kakn7294;1354554]There are a multitude of things that they can do such as use low-flow bath fixtures, use energy efficient lighting and appliances, reuse towels and linens rather than replacing them daily, ...quote]
At home we try to do some things the "green" way. We recycle, I traded my SUV for a compact car, and we reuse towels (this one drives my mom crazy! - Sorry mom). Anyway, every time we are at Disney we leave our towels where they say to leave them if we want to reuse them and EVERY time we come back to new sets of towels. I was just curious if this has happened to anyone else?

[TBone]

First, this whole thing is grandstanding by Disney. The added benefit is the $$$ for them.

Second - my last two stays at the Polynesian.

Both times I asked for the low pressure shower heads to be changed. I have done this at other hotels and they do it, no questions asked. They all seem to have regular shower heads available for the customers that request them. At the Poly, no luck. Both times, the service guy would come and put another low pressure shower head in. So, it's 25 minutes in the shower instead of 10. My daughter has long thick hair and by the end of a week we've just about had it with Disney over this issue alone.

Also, they have motion sensors in the bathrooms. These devices turn off the bathroom fan after 5 or 10 minutes of not detecting any motion. So, the result is that the combination of low pressure shower head and a fan that turns off while you're taking a longer shower to make up for it, is a totally steamed up bathroom. I actually would call my wife in to walk around the bathroom and trigger the fan (if she wasn't sleeping). For the times that I was alone or when everyone else was sleeping, I devised a technique where I throw a balled up wet washcloth right under the sensor (going thump on the wall) to trigger the fan on. On the last trip, I called for a technician and he changed the fan unit and it still did the same thing. I tried explaining what my issue was but he didn't understand English (apparently). So I gave up.

Towels. I demand clean ones every day. Extra towels too. The thought of reusing a towel grosses me out. Nobody is that clean and everyone loses skin cells when drying off. I usually tip an extra $10 per day just to make sure I have plenty of towels and clean linen, wherever I travel.

Oh yes, the linen. I always ask that it be changed every day. I put a small x in the corner of the sheet so that I can tell if they change them. Disney runs about 75%, most other hotels are closer to 100%.

I don't like what they're doing with the a/c either, but give me a high pressure, hot shower, clean towels and clean bed sheets and I'll deal with the a/c, I guess.

This is just too much aggaravation for a $325/night room, isn't it? Now they're announcing that they are going to make it worse. Ugh.

[AndrewJackson]

Walt Disney was always promoting responsible use of our resources, and protecting the environment.

Good for Walt Disney World to continue to promote this.

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

This is fantastic news! Great to hear!

[EvilQueen2006]

Great news!

[LauraleeH]

As hot as Florida is, I am not liking the idea of the A/C turning off!!!

[Ian]

As hot as Florida is, I am not liking the idea of the A/C turning off!!!

Not to be so gauche as to be "un-green", but I agree with you.

Mess with anything, but the AC. They've already put a restriction on how cool you make your room. The LAST thing I want is to come back after a hot, sweaty day in the parks to a hotel room with no AC on.

[EeyoresBestFriend]

I'm all for green but. . ..well, I have to admit I'm with the A/C panicked crowd. I don't relish the idea of having to do jumping jacks, at midnite, in a hot room to keep it running so it'll cool down, after being in the parks all day. Especially, if I am paying moderate prices to be there.
May be they can look into timers on the A/C so if you know you'll be back at the end of the night - you can just set the A/C to turn on a half hour before you get in and off again in the morning. Kinda like the ones you have at home, just with a daily set program??

What cha think, Renovationeers???

[Red Randal]

I'm not too worried about waking up hot in the middle of the night because I usually get really cold when I'm sleeping and end up turning the a/c off anyway. I'm more concerned with the temperature when I get back from the parks.

I could understand them turning the a/c DOWN when there is no motion sensed. I don't need the room constantly at 60 when I'm not even in it. But maybe they can set it to make sure the temperature never gets above, say, 74 (unless, of course, you set it to) when there is no motion sensed. It won't take that long to cool off a room at that temperature.

I like the idea of the timers. Maybe they can deactivate the sensors between, say, 11pm and 7am when they assume people are going to be in the room.