"We can't be a leader in global conservation if we don't also live it at home," President Steven E. Sanderson said in a release Wednesday as the organization announced plans for a 30-percent cut in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
The 112-year-old organization conducts research and works to protect rare and endangered animals in various places around the world. Based at the Bronx Zoo, it also operates the Central Park, Prospect Park, and Queens zoos and the New York Aquarium.
The society has calculated that its power usage, heating, travel and even paper consumption are responsible for releasing a total of about 34,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming each year.
The organization's efforts to shrink its so-called carbon footprint range from installing a water-saving system at the Bronx Zoo's sea lion exhibit to altering that zoo's power plant to use only natural gas, rather than burning both diesel fuel and natural gas.
