Sustainable Ideas...

What makes a zoo a green zoo? Dallas Zoo officials recently announced that they will be moving forward with an ambitious plan to power several of the zoo’s buildings and irrigation systems with fuel composed of animal droppings, cardboard, and tree limbs.

Jenny and Keke, the zoo’s two prized African elephants, will be crucial contributors to the project, creating a combined 300 pounds of waste every day!

The waste will be fed into a biogas generator, which will add oxygen to the compost and heat it to very high temperatures, creating a gas that will in turn contribute to heat, water, and electric power throughout the zoo.

BDS Technologies, a Dallas-based firm specializing in environmental and public works engineering, will design and build the zoo’s poo-powered infrastructure. Talks of the project began over a year ago, and the generator is estimated to be finished at some point before the end of the year.

While this new power system is projected to cost somewhere in the vicinity of $1 million dollars, Zoo officials are confident that the project will pay for itself within ten years, due to conventional energy savings and less frequent trips to the landfill.

Now that’s an idea you simply can’t poo-poo.