Greening a theme park

[EAS]

Tivoli Gardens but this will be relevant at Dreamland

Sorry about all the ads, bear with it

http://video.forbes.com/fvn/lifestyle/g ... theme-park

[Peet]

Interesting. How about Dreamland: The world's first Heritage amusement park AND the world's first carbon neutral amusement park?
I guess there isn't really the money to install wind turbines to power the whole park - unless more funding is available for that kind of thing...

[Jim Douglas Jr.]

Your government may sponsor such things.

[Neil]

Great video EAS. Oakwood in Wales run one of their miniature railway trains on oil from the restaurant (at least they did when it was family run). There’s some cool and marketable concepts out there.

That’s a great idea Pete. To be carbon neutral you could generate the energy onsite, although as you say it’d cost a lot to install and there might well be planning issues. You can also buy from ‘green’ suppliers, for example:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/work/milli ... ge_id=1092
Some of their energy does come from ‘dirty fuels’ but they seem better than some suppliers. Alternatively you could build a wind turbine, but have it offsite. I seem to remember passing wind turbines on the way from Dover to Margate on the train. Obviously if they’re off site you need to work harder to show guests that you’re being environmentally friendly. You can also use carbon off setting, for example buying up sections of the rainforest to balance pollution created. You could even buy up areas of the rainforest and then allow guests to adopt animals in it.

Buying ‘green energy’ or carbon off setting would avoid the initial capital investment although it would be an ongoing expense.

Another example from the theme park industry is Europa Park who have solar panels on the roof above the walkway from the car park to the entrance.

I think businesses are slowly becoming more environmentally aware but from a commercial viewpoint it can be difficult to justify the investment.

Obviously it’s ultimately up to the Dreamland Trust and the managers they appoint, but I’m sure they will give the environment serious though. Being carbon neutral would be difficult, but perhaps not impossible.