Analysis of Disney's Environmental Behaviour 2005

Today, the world is decreasing, as a direct result of globalization. Distances are shorter; the number of habitants of the world is increasing in the same tempo as new companies appear. The environmental affects today are highly visible, we all agree on how much the weather has been changing the last ten years, pollution increases as we need more products, and global warming is now a fact.

The author of The World is Flat claims that we today are moving towards an era, which he calls "Globalization 3.0", which is driven by individuals, which are not only non-Western and non-white but also a group of individuals. This era makes it easy for everyone to play the game, (1) and we can therefore say that this is not the time where the big companies decide what we want, competition is increasing, and companies need to adopt, change and most importantly differentiate in order to keep on prosper. In the end, does thinking environmentaly solely lye on the big enterprises, or do we as individuals have any responsibility?

In this essay, we will be discussing one of these environmental strategies of differentiation. Think green. We will be exploring one of the biggest media company in the world, Walt Disney Enterprises INC, and what they do in order to gain a competitive advantage by implementing environmental care into their organization. The first part will contain a short presentation of the company, the main part will be focused on what aspects are important for thinking environmentally, how they implement it, and most importantly, what are the results. In the end, there will be a summary and finally an evaluation of the results found in the summary.

Some Disney facts from their "fun facts" page

* In 2003, Disney Volunteers around the world participated in more than 1,050 projects, contributing more than 400,000 community service hours.

* In 2003, Cast Members and employees throughout the United States partnered with nonprofit organizations to donate 527 tons of reusable materials.

* During the past seven years, water-saving initiatives at the Walt Disney World® Resort have saved nearly 2.5 billion gallons of water.

* Writers for the comedy series "According to Jim" reduced paper scripts by approximately 300,000 sheets of paper per year, utilizing wireless PC tablets.

* If every household in Florida used ENERGY STAR qualified cooling products, the annual energy savings would be enough to power the Walt Disney World Resort for eight years. (8)

Walt Disney, and his brother Roy Oliver Disney founded Walt Disney Enterprises, Inc. on October 16 1923. It started of as a cartoon studio, but today it is the second largest media company in the United States. Their headquarters are located in Burbank, California, is a component of the Dow Jones IA and had revenues of 30,8 billion dollars in 2004.

Today, Disney is run by Michael D. Eisner CEO, but will be replaced by the President and COO Robert A. Iger October 1 2005.

The company is divided into four divisions, which are their main operating units;

Studio Entertainment; Buena Vista Motion, Music, International, Home Entertainment, Theatrical (one of the largest producers of Broadway musicals) and Home Entertainment International. (6)

Parks and Resorts; Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort Paris, Tokyo Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, two cruise ships and ESPN Zone (sports-themed restaurants and TV-station) (4)

Media Networks; consists of television, radio, internet and cable companies such as the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Disney Channel, ESPN, 10 local television stations and 26 local radio stations just to mention some. (5)

Consumer Products; They have Disney Stores all over the world except Japan and North America (outsourced on 50 year license in 2004) where Disney toys are sold, but this division does not only involve toys but also items such as interactive games, home dйcor, food, beverages, art, books and electronics.

(3) (Points 3-6 also serves information found under resource point 2)

However, this paper is focused on the environmental issues of the company, and of course, being such a big enterprise, there are several areas of which the company should be able to have environmental practices.

Their Environmental Report of 2004 has summarized their environmental views and practices into five different sections; Environmentality is

* Fiscal Responsibility

* Resource Conservation

* Research and Development

* Wildlife Conservation

* Education and Outreach

The main part of this paper will be explaining all five in order to give a picture of what Disney actually does, also within most of the different areas of the their own divisions.

Environmentality is fiscal responsibility

Tom Staggs (Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer) claims that "In order to create shareholder value of the Walt Disney Company, our businesses are focused on delivering long-term growth, improving efficiencies, and building market share".

By taking corporate action to protect the environment, Disney believes the only way doing this is by consistently working towards conservation. By efficiently using their resources, this will in the long term create a positive impact.

"Vision" is a good example of some of the aspects the Walt Disney Studios IT division developed in order to save the environment for less damage. "Vision" is an online media asset management system that actually allows different business units to effectively manage Disney's important digital assets such as audio, photos and artwork. This system has especially been important to Buena Vista Pictures Marketing division. As a result, this has reduced the costs of print, duplicating, labor costs and shipping. Also today, over a thousand assets are accessed weekly, and the cost savings since the inception are estimated to a value of $40 million.

The company does not only access environmental practices only in their studio divisions, The Disney Resort designed "Environmental Review