SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Now in its 14th year, Christmas at the Princess has been delighting more than 300,000 guests each year.
It's a huge footprint on the environment but organizers have been making changes over the years to help reduce that.
“Part of that is doing what you can to positively impact your environment whether it’s social or economic or environmental,” said John Glynn, with Fairmount Scottsdale Princess.
It starts with all their lights.
“You may look around and see seven million lights but they are all LED, which requires a ton less energy,” said Glynn.
When it comes to all the displays, sets, décor and structures they reuse and repurpose them year after year.
“We have no single-use plastics on the property so your cups, plates, utensils... so those will all be compostable, recyclable, bamboo, aluminum,” said Glynn.
At the Phoenix Zoo, conservation is its main goal. In 2015 they switched all their lights over to LEDS.
“We also do things like recycle our old lights, we put timers on things so trees are only on when they have to be. We repurpose our armature which are our sculptures by taking lights off and using them on another one,” said Justin Davis, manager of Zoo Lights.
Speaking of reusing and repurposing... “One of our really big, best trees we had that I loved for zoo lights it started to get some tree rot on it. So instead of just cutting it down or stumping it down, we actually turned it into an 11-foot-tall pelican statue,” said Davis.
It makes for a great photo opportunity that will stay at the Zoo forever. Each event takes the steps to not just talk the talk but walk the walk.
“We can make a larger impact to once again lessen our carbon footprint and make sure we are doing our part to keep Mother Earth going and moving along the best we can,” said Davis.
