WDW Requested to Use "GREEN" Cleaners

[TheRustyScupper]

The Center for Health, Environment and Justice Friday morning began a campaign to persuade The Walt Disney Co. to use environmentally safe cleaning products at its Walt Disney World theme parks, restaurants and hotels near Orlando, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported.

The Virginia-based organization, along with the Florida Alliance for Healthy Indoor Environments and other health and environmental groups, said Disney should be "an environmentally responsible tourism-industry leader" by switching to "certified 'green' cleaning products and procedures."

"'Green Chemistry' has made toxic chemicals in cleaning products unnecessary and a thing of the past," Lois Marie Gibbs, executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, said in a statement released Friday morning.

"Walt Disney World should take the lead in the tourism industry, and switch all of their hotels and parks to certified-green cleaning products and procedures. By doing so, they will protect the health of their most vulnerable visitors, the children, and will set an industry standard for good indoor air quality practices."

Gibbs is a longtime environmental activist who first came to prominence in the late-1970s, when she led efforts to clean up the Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, N.Y., a neighborhood she lived in that previously had been the site of a toxic-waste dump.

Her organization said it would "challenge Disney to protect children and follow the same healthy practices they are already using in Animal Kingdom, which protect animals: Use green cleaning products, instead of unnecessary and dangerous toxic cleaners."

The organization?s Web site is urging consumers to write to Disney officials to lobby for a change in the company's practices.

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PERSONAL NOTE: I do not see this happening very soon. WDW does not even use BioDiesel for their diesel buses and vehicles. Not only does it burn 78% cleaner than fossil fuels, it is renewable, since it comes from soy beans (among other virgin vegetable oils). Additionally, it costs less than diesel fuel and can save up to $3,500 per year per bus in engine maintenance.

 

[crazy4wdw]

ENVIRONMENTAL MESSAGE

Group urges Disney to go all 'green'

Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted April 14, 2007

If Walt Disney World is concerned enough about toxic cleaning products to avoid using them in some places, the company should ban them throughout, an environmentalist group challenged on Friday.

The Virginia-based Center for Health, Environment & Justice called for Disney World to switch to nontoxic, biodegradable cleaning products in all its hotels, restaurants and parks.

The group, which was founded by activist Lois Gibbs of Love Canal fame, lauded Disney for avoiding toxic cleaners in some properties, including several hotels and Disney's Animal Kingdom, and said the company can and should do so throughout. Stacey Gonzalez urged Disney to pledge to a timetable to accelerate its move toward using "green" cleaning products.

"They already are using green cleaners in Animal Kingdom so they know it is important," said Stacey Gonzalez, chairman of the center's Child Proofing and Communities Campaign. "Disney is the leader in the tourism industry. We know they can make this transition, and we know they can be a leader in this industry."

Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Polak questioned the validity of the group's Animal Kingdom comparison, saying there were no special policies regarding cleaning products used there. She said Disney uses safe, carefully reviewed cleaning products throughout all its properties.

"We believe all our products are safe for our guests and for our employees," Polak said.

She noted Disney is pursuing a number of strong environmental initiatives, including one to have its hotels declared "green lodging" in the Florida Green Lodging Certification Program. Six of them have been certified so far, she said, adding, "It's a process."

Gonzalez said some of Disney's certified green hotels earned the label in part because of a commitment to using only green cleaning products there.

Yet in other hotels and parks, she said, Disney still uses some cleaners, such as a particular laundry detergent, a glass cleaner and a floor cleaner, made with ingredients linked to a wide variety of human health problems. There are effective, "green" alternatives for all of them, she said.

Scott Powers can be reached at 407-420-5441 or spowers@orlandosentinel.com.