Sustainability Efforts at the Denver Zoo

LEED Platinum • Water Conservation • Alternative Transportation • Zero Waste • Local Food • Energy Conservation

Alternative Transportation

At Denver Zoo we are committed to providing programs for employees that support a decreased reliance on cars, and increase Denver Zoo's support of community initiatives to promote alternative transportation. Our goal at the zoo is to increase overall employee trips using alternative transportation by 10 percent by challenging each employee to use alternative transportation more than twice a month. This will help reduce our use of combustion fuels that can damage the environment and contribute to global climate change. We have also mitigated the zoo's overall transportation effects by converting 70 percent of the zoo fleet to alternative fuel operated vehicles.

One of our most innovative programs is our EcoWheels software program. EcoWheels is specifically designed to help track employee commuting methods including use of alternative transportation.  Thanks to our employee participation in EcoWheels, we learned that we met our goal of increasing alternative transportation use by 10 percent and, instead, have increased alternative transportation by 12 percent in 2011 from our 2009 baseline. Our alternative transportation programs’ success has been aided by employee and guest incentives.

Denver Zoo provides an Eco Pass as a benefit to all full-time employees, promoting an ecologically-sound option for commuting through RTD public transit. In addition to offering our employees a sustainable transportation option, we implemented an admission discount of $2 for guests that use RTD to get to Denver Zoo. We also host an Alternative Transportation Fair for employees and volunteers to increase awareness of bus routes, bike shops and carpooling options.  In 2010, Denver Zoo’s Workplace Conservation Committee created the Wild Ride challenge, a challenge to one zoo employee to give up their car for commuting to work for one full year.  In its second year, the

Wild Ride Challenge participants have inspired zoo employees to rethink and commit to using alternative transportation to get to work on a daily basis.

Initiatives we’ve implemented towards decreasing our transportation impacts have not gone unnoticed. In 2011, Denver Zoo was awarded the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Green Award, Bike Denver’s Bicycled Friendly Business Award and the League of American Bicyclists’ Silver Level Bicycle Friendly Business Award. We encourage all to use the tools available in our community to decrease the use of vehicles and enjoy the outdoors while reducing your greenhouse gas emissions. 

Check out these resources for more information: 
www.bikedenver.org,
www.rtd-denver.com,
Bicycling in Denver /City and County of Denver  http://www.denvergov.org/Default.aspx?alias=www.denvergov.org/bikeprogram

Download Alternative Transportation Flyer (pdf)