About this Report

Corporate Responsibility reporting at The Walt Disney Company is an evolving process. We have previously issued reports about Disney locations – Walt Disney World, Disneyland Resort – and on specific issues, such as the environment, park safety and conservation. You can dowload these reports at our Report Archive. In addition, we have made information available on our governance policies, community outreach and international labor standards programs at www.disney.com/responsibility.

Report Framework

This report is meant to draw all of these topics together, weaving them into a cohesive narrative that provides insight into how we view corporate responsibility at Disney. We view this report as part of an ongoing dialogue with Disney shareholders, employees and Cast Members, business associates, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and consumers. It is our intent to publish a CR report on a biannual basis, with the next report covering fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

Scope and Structure

The policies, programs, and performance data presented in this report are for the company's 2008 fiscal year, ending September 27, 2008, unless otherwise noted. Instances where information is relevant only to a single or a few segments or has a different Time frame than the fiscal year will be distinguished.

Segment and Site Reporting

The company's many businesses have different impacts and priorities in terms of corporate responsibility issues. As a business enterprise, we create physical products, as well as ideas, destinations and experiences. This report is designed to build transparency around the impacts of all our businesses. Additionally, we have published one "segment" and several "site" reports focused on our Parks and Resorts business. We believe that our segment and site reports illuminate both the differences and commonalities in business segments and hope you enjoy this additional level of detail.

To learn more about our efforts at our Parks and Resorts, please visit our Suite of Reports.

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Focus Areas

In this report, we've broken corporate responsibility into five areas - Children & Family, Content & Products, Environment, Community and Workplaces. Each of these represents a critical aspect of Disney's approach and its operations.

The Disney enterprise operates across a range of industries internationally, and as a result, our operations touch upon many key issues. The report strives to address the most important issues by looking at them through the following lenses:

  • Impact on our business, our employees, communities, consumers and shareholders
  • Industry regulations and standards
  • Generally accepted sustainability reporting guidelines, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 guidelines
  • Opportunities to make sustainable change, for the company and for society
  • Global scope and interest
  • Components that are unique competencies, such as children and family entertainment
  • Areas of stakeholder interest

As our corporate responsibility strategy continues to develop, we look forward to hearing from interested parties as to which areas interest them most and on the progress Disney is making in addressing any concerns.

Data and Assurance

We looked to the Global Reporting Initiative, the commonly accepted guidelines used by companies to report on corporate responsibility issues, for guidance on specific reporting principles regarding content, quality and report boundaries. Not all of the guidelines are applicable or appropriate to our business, and we have applied them flexibly.

Several considerations have guided the development of the report. These include issue importance, stakeholder inclusiveness, sustainability context, completeness, balance, comparability, accuracy, timeliness, reliability and clarity.

Performance data is presented throughout the report. Where relevant, we provide details on scale, scope, and collection methodology. Using the GRI guidelines for accuracy, we believe the data we present is sufficiently detailed to allow for clear understanding of our disclosures. We've also taken care to explain key estimates or assumptions that are used in the development of metrics.

This report represents our best efforts to accurately depict our impacts, progress and results as they relate to corporate responsibility.�There are�some cases where we��have relied on estimates�to communicate results.�These areas are identified�in the report.�With a goal of transparency and accuracy, we expect�the process of data collection�to evolve as we refine�our approach.�In addition, we will consider external verification�in the future as a way to enhance assurances regarding the validity of the report's contents.

In some areas of this report, we discuss forward-looking targets and goals. We believe target-setting to be a good discipline and it is a routine part of how we manage our business. Nevertheless, all targets are subject to uncertainty, and there is no assurance that the targets will be achieved.

Any forward-looking statements in this report are based on our current understanding of the operational and financial environment and are subject to changes in business strategies and uncertainties in the market. Please note that we do not anticipate updating particular portions of this report, which should therefore be understood to speak only as of its publication date.

We also acknowledge that there are areas and issues that don't lend themselves to target setting and we've tried to clearly express that in the relevant sections.

A Note on Vocabulary

For convenience, this report often refers generally to "The Walt Disney Company" or "Disney" or "the company," or even "we" and "us." In fact, our various businesses are conducted by a number of separate corporations and other legal entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, wholly or in part, by the parent public company, known as The Walt Disney Company. Accordingly, use of the names and terms in this report may refer broadly to practices or other matters relevant to many of our businesses and is not intended to suggest that they, or any combination of them, operate as a single entity. Moreover, since this is an integrated report, references to "The Walt Disney Company," "the company," "Disney," "we," or "us" may mean, as appropriate, either The Walt Disney Company and/or one or more of its affiliated companies.

In addition, when we reference "Disney-branded" products or businesses we mean to limit the meaning to only those products which fall under the Disney brand.