Building a Sustainable Zoo

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Building a Sustainable Zoo
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What is Conservation?

• Animals
• Habitats
• Resources

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What is Sustainability?

• ,,, able to be maintained
• The capacity to endure
• The ability to provide for the needs of the
  present without detracting from the ability to
  serve the needs of the future
• Sound business practice, corporate social
  responsibility

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Whats the Deal?

• What are we doing and why?
• Reducing energy, resource, and water consumption
• Increasing use of alternative energy sources,
  increase diversion from the landfill
• Board approved policy statement - 2008
• Board-level Carbon Neutral/Zero Waste Task Force
  - 2010

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Sustainability Policy

• Recognizing its impact on all stakeholders,
• the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium will develop a
  world class sustainability program leading to the
  meaningful reduction of its carbon footprint.-
  Adopted by the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
  Executive and Appointed Board, December 2008

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What happens at home?

• 580 acres of land
• Over 10,000 individual animals in our care
• More than 1.9 million guests visited in 2012

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Areas of Concentration
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Waste Reduction

• Reuse old wetsuits as protective gear for animal
  handling
• Reuse celery and/or grocery bags as well as the
  rubber bands that hold broccoli bunches together 
• Deliver food to animal areas in reusable
  containers
• Use barrels and trashcans rather than trash bags
  to collect soiled bedding
• Put up dry erase boards for checklists and
  communication
• Save handles to broken tools so they can be
  reused with new heads.

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Just the facts, maam
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Waste Recycling 2012

• 816 tons manure, bedding material and food
  waste  
• 126.73 tons of baled corrugated (21 tons in 2010)
• 5.21 tons of paper (Abitibi) 
• 7.46 tons of mixed metal 
• 11.22 tons of co-mingled recyclables (8.81 tons
  in 2011)
• Cell phones recycled (183 in 2011)
• Over 5,000 light bulbs fluorescent, metal
  halide, U-tubes,,,
• 21.5 tons electronics Public drop off event

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Save a Watt, Save a Lot
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Energy Conservation

• Is it driven by money or mission?

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WildLights at the Zoo
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WildLights at the Zoo

• Converted 3 million traditional holiday lights to
  LED bulbs
• 85 reduction in electricity
• 2-year effort
• Major support by American Electric Power

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Warehouse Lighting

• The lighting system was upgraded to more energy
  efficient lights
• Active daylighting system was installed (fancy
  skylights)
• The daylighting system is integrated with the
  lighting system

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Warehouse Lighting

• The lights are connected to occupancy sensors
• The Zoo has seen a savings of 11,000 per year on
  its electric bill
• The estimated ROI on this project was 2.4 years

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Flux Drive Installations

• Frictionless coupling of motor and pump using
  magnet technology
• Design life of 20 years

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Flux Drive Installations

• No throttling all valves are wide open
• Provides variable speed control to reduce flow as
  required
• Saves energy money
• No harmonics
• Reduced noise and vibration
• Straightforward in design, easy to operate
  understand
• Designed to operate in harsh environments
• documented at the CZA

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Who cares?
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Polar Frontier

• Theming
• Reuse
• Rethinking
• Plantings

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Polar Frontier

• Geothermal System provides geothermal heating and
  cooling to 3 buildings, including the Battelle
  Ice Bear Outpost
• Heats and cools the water for all bear pools
• Geothermal system eliminated need for traditional
  air-cooled chillers, gas-fired boilers and
  heating units
• Zoo water tower serves as heat sink and heat
  source

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Life Support System Controls

• LSS Control changes at Manatee Coast and Polar
  Frontier
• Touch screen controls on Zoo-wide network, remote
  log-in
• Staffing efficiency
• Programming changes for optimal operations
  efficiency

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Savings
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Energy Savings Program

• Active Energy Savings Program for years
• Lighting
• Ciralight active skylights
• Fluxdrives
• Building Controls

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Recycling

• 270 new sets of combined recycling/trash
• containers are now on-grounds

The project was funded in part by the Ohio
Department of Natural Resources, Division of
Recycling and Litter Prevention
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Cell Phone Recycling

• Partnering with ECO-CELL, the Columbus Zoo and
  Aquarium will lead efforts in our community to
  collect used cell phones and approved handheld
  electronics for recycling in an
  environmentally-minded manner

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Stepping it up, Embracing our Future
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Carbon Footprint Baseline Results
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Breakdown of Greenhouse Gas Sources
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When is waste a resource?

• Compost
• Waste to
• energy

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Future Projects
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Planning for a Bright Green Future