Background
For the last 12 years, Sarah Sutton provided strategic planning and policy support to the Environmental Sustainability Manager and COO of the Detroit Zoological Society, and to the board’s Green Print Committee. This decade-long partnership has contributed to the zoo’s success, earning the following awards:
- 2020 WAZA Sustainability Award
- 2015 AZA Top Honors in Sustainability alongside Vancouver Aquarium
- 2014 AZA Green Significant Achievement Award
Our Role
ECP continues to support the Zoo in a consulting capacity.
Next Steps
The zoo has eliminated single use water bottles, expanded its metering, shifted to all-electric golf carts for staff circulation, built an anaerobic biodigester to manage hoofstock waste, and installed a solar flower charging and educational station, among many other practices. Strategic planning for the landscape, buildings, and systems includes energy and water efficiency, carbon capture and habitat expansion.