Walt Disney’s Sustainability Policy: Goals, Strategies, and Implementation

Walt Disney is committed to establishing a positive and environment-friendly legacy for its future. Learn about their goals, strategies, and implementation for conserving energy, water resources, and the ecosystem as a whole.

Walt Disney’s Sustainability Policy
Introduction
“We feel responsible for anything that has Disney name attached to it” According to Walt
Disney. Walt Disney is a company which ranked at top position in Australia when it comes to
sustainable use of resources or sustainable development. In 2008 they published their first report
on their environmental targets and have some really solid environmental protection and
sustainment plans till the year 2020. They believe in long term investment of social
responsibility towards environment and society which is benefitting them today and will surely
benefit them in the future decades to come.
As the technology is advancing and business are growing rapidly, the scarcity of valuable natural
resources, loss of biodiversity and unmanaged waste material pose a big threat on the ecosystem
of the planet. Walt Disney aims at establishing a positive and environment friendly legacy for its
future. The company encourages all its cast and crew, guests, employees as well as associated
business towards sustainable development and use of natural resources as well as efficient waste
management techniques. In this task we are going to discuss
Scope
The company aims to conserve energy, water resources and ecosystem as a whole in order to
reach its environmental targets. Walt Disney seeks to identify, establish, measure and understand
the effect of use of natural resources and effects of environmental sustainability and also aims to
find innovative and practical solutions for minimization of these impacts.
Finally the company is committed to release its final report related to progress of the
implemented policies and achievement of targets in the fiscal report every year.
Gather Information
Gathering information is a very crucial step in order to formulate plans and policies related to
environmental performance of the business. There is a range of sources available that helps in
setting up an ideal environmental sustainability policy for any business such as:
 Vision and Mission Statement of a company
 Financial, social and environmental objectives of a business
 Workplace health and safety policy
 Purchasing policies
 Waste management policy
 Integrated Marketing Communication policies

 Human resource management policy
 Environmental reports of a business
Walt Disney is a company which is very focused and serious about their environmental
sustainability policies toward three major goals:
 Zero Greenhouse Gas Emission
 Zero Waste
 Water resource conservation
The research for explicit goal of Walt Disney on zero greenhouse gas emission and sustainable
ecosystem began by measuring and valuing functions of ecosystem and philanthropy system of
environment. In 2009 they also developed a paper sourcing policy and an Environmental
Responsibility Index to gather information on major environmental impacts and strategies. They
also gather information through labor standards, various laws related to environmental
sustainability in different countries, environmental index etc. the company has even received a
LEED Silver Certification for their new data center in North Carolina.
Stakeholder engagement
Stakeholders of the company are increasing becoming an important part of main stream policies
of business, decision making and environmental performance review of the businesses.
Stakeholder of the company may include:
 Customers
 Employees
 Government and public agencies
 Investors of the business
 Society or community at local level
 Regulators and suppliers
Walt Disney has a dream of getting admired as good corporate citizen in the community. Disney
Conservation Fund has directed more than US$ 70 million in order to save wildlife and planet. A
dedicated staff of 120 professional working in 12 different countries all over the world has been
formed to initiate the Disney’s International Labor standards. In order to create suitable and long
term investment in improving the standard of working conditions of labors and empowering
people DILS has also initiated Supply chain Investment Program with the help of NGOs and UN
Agencies. A good and stable environmental sustainability policy is achieved with the
involvement and consultation of people who are supposed to deliver it i.e. the stakeholders of the
company.
Policy-making strategies (principles)

There are various appropriate strategies or principles related to the policies of the firm in every
stage that help and provide guidance in planning and implementing policies and procedures
related to environmental factors in a firm. There are a number of strategies that can be included
to assess the environmental performance of a company, such as:
 Assessment of waste
 Purchase improvement
 Improvement in storage
 Conservation of energy
 Water conservation
 Reduction and management of waste
In case of Walt Disney, there are some key focus areas that the company includes in developing
their procedures and policies related to environment as guiding principles or strategies.
Conservation of waste and energy: to establish and sustain an environmental legacy of the
company, Walt Disney focus on conservation of natural resources like water and increasing
energy efficiency. They are investing in new technologies that aim at enhancement of water and
energy conservation for their future projects.
Reduction in Greenhouse Gas emission: Reduction of GHG emission is one of the main
environmental goals of Walt Disney. In the year 2009, the company drafted separate goals for
Direct and Indirect impacts of greenhouse emission. They have a target of reduction in 50%
emission by the end of year 2020
Waste Minimization: In order to create a positive impact on the ecosystem Walt Disney has
also adopted an explicit goal of minimization of waste material. They have creatively drafted the
policy of 3 R’s “Reuse, Recycle, reduce” for this purpose.
Eco System Conservation: Conservation of eco system is another important strategy adopted by
Walt Disney in order to save wildlife and protect bio diversity on the planet.
Develop Policy
Once a company is done with gathering information, formulating a plan and consulting its
stakeholders, they are required to develop a sustainable environmental policy for the business.
The steps required to build a sustainable environmental policy for the business are:
 Identification of target material
 Designing the program for environmental sustainable policy
 Education of employees or people who are involved in the process of delivery
 Establishing company policy or goal
 Purchasing of environment friendly material
 Agree to appropriate method of implementation

 Delegation of Responsibility
 Ensure well resourced team to achieve objective
Walt Disney adopts a very subtle policy in order to achieve its objectives concerning
environmental sustainability. The portfolio of projects related to environmental sustainability has
been taken into consideration such as emission reduction projects, Cruise waste management
project, energy efficiency measures, fuel cell, geothermal walls etc.
Next step is to influence the behavior of employees of the company by issuing guidelines
regarding the policy and plan. After that focus on research and development efforts on renewable
resources and waste management is made. To grow the portfolio of efficient sources of energy,
continuous efforts are made. Investment on forest carbon project and strategy to reduce carbon
emission is done.
Policy Implementation / Important Guidelines
Guidelines for the implementation of policy in a business require a sustainability coordinator for
all the capital intensive programs. During the implementation of policies some of the guidelines
are that are adopted:
 The implementation of the policies are to be broken down into small pieces of
information such as Resources required, cost of items, availability of resources, potential
benefits, completion of task, preparation of implementation of plan
 Cost and benefits of each step is assessed
 Logical sequencing of different stages of implementation
 Monitoring of implemented plan
 Development of procedures to help the implementation of ESP
Recommendation
The Walt Disney Company needs to focus more on its CSR policy and general code of ethics
because current programs related to corporate social responsibility of the company are not
sufficient as of now in terms of its size and impact that they have on the minds of our younger
generation. This company has the power to inspire kids, their parents and families to make a very
huge and lasting change in the world and hat it why the company need to make amendments in
its current CSR model. These changes and incubation of new and impactful ideas will strengthen
CSR policies of the company. Minimizing the environmental footprints, 0% emission of
greenhouse gases and replacement of electric power motors will do wonders to the
environmental sustainability initiatives of the company.