ABSTRACT
The Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Fla., is among the most highly visited destinations on earth. Its “campus” consists of hundreds of buildings that include world-class hotel and conferencing centers, exotic ride environments, and precisely controlled spaces for horticulture and animal care.
In addition to a Wall-Street eye on the bottom line, Walt Disney himself encoded the company’s DNA with an ethic toward conserving natural resources and the environment that remains to this day as a program called Environmentality. Environmentality is a way of thinking, acting, and doing business in an environmentally conscientious way—from saving energy and water to reducing waste and other environmental impacts.
At Disney, energy is a key to success. Air-conditioning, refrigeration, compressed air, and water-moving systems for buildings, rides, and transportation all run primarily on electricity and natural gas. To maximize energy conservation and efficiency while minimizing costs and environmental concerns, the Walt Disney World Resort has implemented a state-of-the-art energy management program (EMP) that can serve as a role model to owners and administrators of public and private facilities.
This chapter describes the energy management program at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando and discusses its results in terms of energy and cost savings. Perhaps in doing so, other facility owners worldwide will develop their own energy management programs and cultivate the economic, energy, and environmental benefits enjoyed by Disney [1][4][6][9][10].
