Parques Reunidos' actions on sustainability in amusement parks: an interview with Isidora Diaz

Sustainability is a challenge for all companies: amusement parks are also facing the sustainability of their business in environmental and social terms. This is an increasingly emerging theme, especially in large groups that manage attractions globally. The sector is carrying out important projects in many fields, including energy production and efficiency of consumption, water use with attention to a valuable resource, food & beverage, using new materials for tableware and sourcing sustainably. Conscious choices can also be made in the area of attraction maintenance through predictive maintenance, which optimizes the use of spare parts. Variable speed pumps (VFD) can be used in water parks to limit consumption.

But what do large groups that run amusement parks, zoos and aquariums do globally? We asked Isidora Diaz, Director of Sustainability, Safety, Health and Environment of Parques Reunidos, the company that manages 57 facilities in Europe, North America and Australia, including Mirabilandia. The 19.1 million global visitors in 2022 benefited from attractions and services powered 100% by renewable energy, confirms the Group’s Sustainability Report.

1)?????What does sustainability mean for Parques Reunidos within amusement parks and tourist attractions?

Parques Reunidos’ purpose is to “provide authentic memorable experiences and happiness to our guests across generations contributing to the growth of our communities and partners”. Serving this purpose means that Parques Reunidos commits to make today’s memorable experiences possible tomorrow by actively protecting the planet, and genuinely caring for people by supporting the teams we work with and strengthening the communities we bring together everyday.

In another words, being sustainable means integrating environmental, social, and governance concerns into every aspect of our business, with the goal to create a better world for future generations and , at the same time, shape Parques Reunidos’ future.

Parques Reunidos Sustainability Road map was launched beginning 2020, including 12 areas of action. Since then, we’ve been working to integrate sustainability across all the departments, from the maintenance teams that ensure good maintenance of our facilities to preserve energy or water, to the operation teams that ensure safe operation, going to people and organization department that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion, or the procurement department that ensures that sustainability is a decision element when evaluating new products or services.

2)?????Amusement parks are complex structures, in which the process towards sustainability covers many aspects. Which areas are engaging you more?

In Parques Reunidos, we have defined 12 areas of action: 5 in the environmental (planet) domain, 5 in the social (people) domain, and 2 in the principles of governance domain.

Each area of action has their own challenges and opportunities.

We operate parks across eleven countries, the maturity level of each country or even each park within the same country can be different. In that sense, we promote a global strategy with local implementation, focused in the most pressing topics in each country or each region or park within a given country. For example, when it comes to water management, the focus in terms of action implementation is in those parks located in high or very high stress waster areas, like some of the parks in Spain, or our parks in California.

There are also aspects that can be different depending on the business segment. For example, biodiversity conservation is an area where zoos and aquariums can create a positive impact through their in-situ and ex-situ programs and through their research and conservation activities.

Other aspects, in particular the one related to people, are more transversal and they follow common programs and activities across the whole park portfolio.

3)?????Can you give us some concrete examples of actions taken to reduce the carbon footprint of the structures you manage?

We have taken significant steps during 2022 in addressing climate change by signing the SBTi (Science Base Targets initiative) Commitment and submitting near-term targets for validation. The targets were approved by SBTi in June 2023, meaning that the Parques Reunidos Group is committed to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gases emissions 87.9% by 2030 from a 2019 base year, and to reduce Scope 3 emissions 27.5% within the same timeframe.

In 2022 we achieved our Zero Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions target in 2022 by sourcing 100% of our electricity from renewable sources backed by the so called energy attribute certificates.

Our ongoing Energy and Water Efficiency Program has yielded positive results. Through 2022 Capex initiatives, we have implemented measures to improve energy and water efficiency, resulting in reduced energy and water intensities per guest.

Our ongoing In-Park sustainability Program, approved in 2022, has also started implementation. By today, 40% of F&B business use reusable cups as the only refill option. This?action is supporting our goal to reduce the amount of waste, including plastic waste and food waste, that we produce in our parks.

But protecting the environment is not only about preventing damage, protecting the environment is also about creating positive impact. In that sense, our zoos and aquariums play a key role through their education and biodiversity conservation programs.

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4)?????In your opinion, what is the most challenging issue for the future in terms of the sustainability of amusement parks and tourist attractions?

The most challenging issue will not be related to how amusement parks and tourist attractions impact the environment, but how the environmental aspects - from water scarcity to adverse weather and climate change- impact us.?We know that adverse weather impacts visitation, we do see more and more adverse weather events happening in the areas where our parks are located, so it’s time to act.

The same will likely happen when it comes to social aspects. In that sense, guest accessibility and inclusion will most likely become a more relevant topic for the sector in the near future. There has been a lot of work in recent years across the sector to address the challenges around accessibility for everyone but there is still work to be done to be able to provide inclusive experiences for all guests, including not only the facilities but also aspects like training and awareness for team members and even for other guests.

But, on a positive note, I’d say that there are also great opportunities for the sector to contribute to a more sustainable world. Millions of guests visit our parks each year; we should not underestimate the power we have to create awareness about social and environmental concerns through our practices and, also, why not? through dedicated programs where future generations can learn why reducing carbon footprint, promoting biodiversity conservation or promoting diversity and inclusion are important.

More info: https://www.parquesreunidos.com/en/sustainability/