The Dallas Zoo Sustainability Steering Committee poses in front of "Zoo Poo" sign to commemorate their movements towards sustainability. The team posed at Silver Creek Materials where they celebrated the launch of the program. Photo courtsey of Chris Corpis
By Cecilia Knutson
It’s years into the future.
Humans have depleted all of their fossil fuels. The sky is smoky and black and crops are wilted. It seems like there’s no hope. Except there is. And it lies in sustainable resources.
Living sustainably could slow or even reduce the pace of climate change. Sustainability efforts are the actions or a lifestyle that will help to slow the depletion of natural resources to restore an ecological balance.
The purpose of sustainability is to ensure that future generations have adequate resources and to provide a better environment for people and animals. Some corporations, like the Dallas Zoo, want to be a leading example of this by analyzing everything they do like watching their water or energy use. The zoo promotes the significance of sustainability in the environment to help slow the imposing effects of climate change.
“We have a goal of ultimately trying to have zero impact on the natural environment through our energy, water and waste,” Chris Corpus, the Director of Conservation at the Dallas Zoo and member of the Sustainability Steering Committee (SSC) said.
Sean Greene is the Executive Vice President of Park Operations at the Dallas Zoo and is a big promoter of sustainability.
“We would love to be viewed as a leader for sustainability in our community and a model organization that inspires others to act,” Greene said.
The Dallas Zoo mainly promotes sustainability through the SSC, which was founded by Greene. The SSC has twelve members that help the zoo make decisions based on key topics.
“Some of the Dallas Zoo’s sustainability goals over the next eight years include diverting more than 90% of our waste away from landfills,” Greene said.
In the U.S. alone, around 1.4 billion tons of manure from livestock and poultry is produced each year. Herbivores at the Dallas Zoo produce more than 2 million pounds of manure a year. This means that close to 70% of the waste from the Dallas Zoo is animal manure.
To prevent this waste from going to a landfill, the zoo recently started a collaboration with Fort Worth’s Silver Creek Materials to create an all organic compost. This compost is called “Zoo Poo” and is made from the manure of hoovestock at the Dallas Zoo, as well as hay and bedding materials for these animals.
“We used to divert 4% of our waste from the landfill and now we divert 50% of our waste away from the landfill,” Senior Director of Guest Services and member of the SSC Carmen Hanold said.
This is a start to getting to the Dallas Zoo’s goal and it took nine months to create. Some of the money made from producing “Zoo Poo” will also benefit the wildlife conservation organizations that the Dallas Zoo currently supports.
“We would love to be viewed as a leader for sustainability in our community and a model organization that inspires others to act.”
Large amounts of unused manure can pose problems for the environment because it turns into methane emissions as it goes through the process of decomposition. However in the process of making the compost, they let the material decompose in the presence of oxygen in a process called aerobic composting. This procedure can reduce carbon emissions by 90%.
“One, it’s nice because we’re recycling the material, but two, now instead of all the poop and waste just going into a landfill and into a garbage area, now it’s being able to be reused and help to grow things in our communities here at home,” Corpus said.
While composting does improve air quality, it can also benefit the earth. When someone puts compost in soil, they are adding a resource that holds water, so they are protecting that essential material. On top of that, compost is a natural fertilizer, an alternative to using harsh chemicals that can harm the local environment.
On top of diverting waste through composting, the Dallas Zoo works hard to find alternatives that they can use to limit their waste.
“We work with [Service Systems Associates (SSA)] and have told them that we want them to cut down on the amount of plastic that they are bringing into our restaurants and stores,” Corpus said.
This also includes pop-up snack stations and souvenir stores. The zoo is working with the company to switch over to plastic alternatives, such as using bioplastics, which are compostable.
Another major issue that the Dallas Zoo is attempting to tackle is lowering their water usage. The team is currently working on analyses of how much water the zoo uses because there is not a clear enough vision of how much water is being used in each department.
Corpus and the zookeepers discovered that a large number of people were using hoses and then leaving them on after hosing down an area. This concerned Corpus so he made sure changes were made.
“We were just wasting water that way because the hose was just running, so we did a whole initiative with the zoo to try and make sure that people were using hose bibs and hose nozzles,” he said.
The efforts have already shown great improvement. Wasting water depletes the amount of water available to people. When there is less water, it can cause a higher concentration of pollutants present in the water, so less water is wasted and those tools can protect this vital resource.
“We’re working on becoming net-zero as it pertains to water consumption,” Greene said.
On top of their efforts to cut their water usage, the zoo promotes using alternatives to transportation, so that they can lower carbon emissions.
“[Our team provides] incentives like bus passes or subsidizing bus passes for all staff to see that it’s possible to come to work with an alternative mode of transportation,” Hanold said.
The SSC and the zoo are also interested in lowering the amount of energy consumption. They are looking into possibly putting solar power on any new building developments as they continue to expand.
“We're just looking at little ways that we can keep cutting back on energy use,” Corpus said. “We are investigating companies and projects in ways that we can add solar to some of the new buildings as the zoo continues to expand in the future to help reduce the amount of energy that we purchase and take from energy suppliers in Texas.”
Corpus remarked that what people choose to support and buy can affect wildlife and humans all over the globe.
“We really try to work hard to evolve messages that are easy for people to understand and have easy actions that [someone] can take to help make a better future for all of us,” Corpus said.
Greene claims that if you can motivate people to respect and care for animals, then there will be more positive outcomes.
“We're just looking at little ways that we can keep cutting back on energy use.”
“Our 2030 goals are ambitious and they should be,” Greene said. “We have a passionate and motivated team at the Dallas Zoo and I know we can achieve those goals to help create a better world for animals.”
The SSC and Dallas Zoo are determined to make strides towards a more sustainable organization to inspire people and other companies to follow their lead towards a brighter future. Hanold encourages everyone to do their part and emphasizes that every step counts.
“I think that it can’t fall on the shoulders of a few people,” Hanold said. “Really all of us have our responsibility to give back to the earth.”