Introduction
The Marjorie & Edward Ziff Tropical World is an attraction owned and managed by Leeds City Council.
Tropical World first opened in 1939 after the existing Coronation House was rebuilt, it was further modernised in 1984. Tropical World went on to benefit from further investment and modifications to what we see today.
Tropical World benefits from a large tropical plant and animal collection and remains one of the top Yorkshire Attractions, usually seeing circa 300k visitors every year.
Tropical World is situated in the Green Flag award winning conservation area of Roundhay Park. Roundhay Park covers over 700 acres of rolling parkland with lakes, woodlands, formal gardens, cafes, sports facilities and playground.
Tropical World is made up of 5 main houses
- Butterfly house
- Aquarium
- Waterfall and Creature Corner
- South America
- Desert House
Tackling Climate Change
In 2019 the council declared a climate emergency. Tropical World is committed to improving sustainability across all its activities and aligns to Leeds City Councils target of becoming the first net-zero city in the UK. Tropical World’s long-term ambition is to create a self-sustaining site through renewable energy.
Parks and Greenspaces Strategy
Our Aim:
- Lead by example and actively take steps to reduce our own carbon footprint through promoting a less wasteful, low carbon economy
- Increasing wildlife and biodiversity to reduce the impact on Climate Change
- Disseminate information on unsustainable practices and threats to biodiversity, including wildlife and habitats
- Create and promote sustainable infrastructure
- Promote and actively encourage positive behavioural change to all stakeholders around sustainable practices
- Promote active sustainable travel through marketing and awareness raising initiatives
- Minimise the production of waste, increase reuse and recycling, prioritising materials offering the greatest carbon savings
- Halving the carbon footprint of food served in the café
What we’re doing:
We are delivering our plan through all of our work. This includes schemes like Leeds Food Strategy, Leeds Waste Strategy, Woodland Creation Scheme, Biodiversity Net Gain, Wild Spaces Partnerships, Clean Air Leeds and Connecting Leeds
We are doing this by:
Food strategy and Food Wise Leeds
Our mission is to ensure the way Leeds produces, consumes, and disposes of food is fit for the future and supports our climate action plan.
Procurement seeks to secure more of the food that we serve from producers based in Yorkshire and the surrounding areas.
Tropical World has taken steps to reduce our food waste by adapting our menus to meet the needs of our customers, optional choices and initiatives to promote healthy eating. Looking ahead our menus will include information on the carbon impact of a food item, allowing visitors to make their own choice about the food they purchase and consume
Excess waste from salad or vegetables in our outlets is given to the animals to reduce wastage and can be used rather than disposed of.
We also work with our current wastage supplier AWM and make sure food waste is separated out and collected in most cases create renewable biogas in Howden.
Glass waste is also separated out so it can be recycled to make 30% sand for bricks and 70% to create more glass bottles and this is sent to multiple companies throughout the UK.
Using E-Vehicles and Sustainable Active Travel
Leeds City Council has invested significantly in low emission vehicles - replacing the vehicles we use with zero and low emission vehicles. LCC has also implemented EV charging infrastructure across the city and a home charging scheme. Tropical World has therefore benefitted and transitioned to an electric vehicle for animal movements and transfer journeys.
Cycle parking is available on site and staff are encouraged to take up the bike to work schemes. Marketing campaigns also encourage active travel given the great greenspace connectivity Tropical World benefits from.
Tropical World have partnered with Love Exploring, through a digital app which aims to increase awareness of greenspaces, on site trails, connectivity with local wildlife and active involvement in our conservation work.
Plastic Reduction
Tropical World Café replaced all plastic bags with paper bags and introduced paper-based takeaway containers for food and drink. Some plastic bottled drinks have been changed to either glass bottles or cans, both of which can be recycled and in the case of the glass bottles, reused. There are some products which the manufacturer currently has no alternative, but we are working with them and will transition when a sustainable solution comes along.
Tropical World Gift Shop has rolled out the use of paper bags for the sale of gifts, toys and other goods in place of plastic bags. The shop is now selling bamboo-based products such as personalised cups and dishes and also eco-friendly soft toys and other gifts. A regular dialogue is being maintained with all the retail suppliers on reduction and alternative material sourcing for products in the shops.
As more products come online we will ensure we inform our visitors through interpretation, signage and social media that the food/products they are purchasing are from ethical sources, we will undertake awareness raising about the difference this makes to wildlife worldwide and what visitors can do to support this.
Energy Efficiency and Reduction
Tropical World had a new heat pump system installed in Summer 2022. The Government has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. In support of this ambition, it has launched the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), which will disperse grant funding to public sector organisations to deliver decarbonisation of heat schemes and energy efficiency measures across their estates.
The Council has a substantial portfolio of sites and buildings, of which Tropical World is one of them, and therefore a substantial level of energy consumption.
In January 2020, and further to Full Council’s declaration of a climate emergency for the City in March 2019, the Executive Board committed to a rationalisation and energy efficiency programme to reduce carbon emissions from Council buildings by 40% by 2025 in support of achieving the overall carbon target for Leeds of net zero by 2030. The purpose of this grant scheme is to help make eligible buildings more energy efficient and install low carbon heating measures. Tropical World will be less wasteful, more resource efficient, low carbon economy, reducing our carbon footprint and energy efficient.
Outreach and Education
Tropical World provides opportunities for people, particularly children and young adults, to learn about local wildlife, the benefits of green space for the environment (e.g., for climate and clean air) and how they can help look after them, with the aim of ensuring our commitment to biodiversity and climate is sustainable and will be maintained by future generations. We will continue to do this through interpretation (e.g., information signs), education sessions and events and activities such as tree planting, pond dipping and bug hunting.
Sustainable Gardening and Growing
Specialist feeder plants are being cultivated in order to supplement our feeder plants for Butterflies on site. We also aim to grow herbs and browse on site for our animals, where possible the Park substitute our Browse needs. Set up of a community offered volunteer programme, with help to bolster our gardening team resource but also offer local people the opportunity to participate in Tropical Worlds maintenance of specialist habitats and gardens, grown to feed the species on site.
Sustainable Exhibits
Tropical World Butterfly Breeding project in house, we hope to establish an active breeding programme of butterflies on site to try and reduce the spend cost of pupae from Stratford Butterfly farm. Alongside making the exhibit we have on site more sustainable, by increasing the longevity of our butterflies life span, breeding in house to bulk our stocking densities and providing appropriate feeder plants for optimal welfare.
Sensor and LED lighting across site
Tropical World has replaced lighting across site to LED, creating a reduction in energy, longer lifespan, less toxic. Keeper off-show areas and external lighting has all been replaced with times or motion sensors to reduce electricity usage.
Water Reuse
Tropical World seeks to reuse water by collecting rainwater to reuse to water plants on site. Collected water is frequently used as initial rinse for cleaning. Sprinkler systems are manual and all water features are switched off overnight.
Biodiversity Net Gain
Biodiversity and planning (leeds.gov.uk)
How we developed these plans:
Consultation
We spoke with a wide cross section of residents and promoted the consultation at over 80 events throughout the city. 7,835 people took part and shared their views on the climate emergency.
We found that:
- 94.8 percent are worried about the effects of climate change on future generations
- 94.8 percent believe that the climate is changing
- 93.4 percent believe that climate change is due to human activity
- 84.9 percent think that they have good knowledge about the causes and effects of climate change
How we make decisions
We are working with the Leeds Climate Commission to become a carbon neutral city. Leeds City Council’s Executive Member for Infrastructure and Climate is also the vice-chair of the commission.
All Executive Board reports include consideration of environmental impacts.
We have a cross party committee that makes recommendations on climate change and sustainability. This is called the Climate Emergency Advisory Committee.