Los Angeles  - Entertainment giant Disney said it plans to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 as the first step toward its goal to become carbon neutral.

The company said it would reduce waste at its theme parks, cruise ships and office and retail spaces to half of the 2006 level of 170,000 tons by 2013. Disney plans to reduce its electricity use by 10 per cent by 2013. The goals were set even though the company plans to expand its California theme park and launch two new cruise ships by 2012.

Beth Stevens, senior vice president of environmental affairs, said it was too early for Disney to name a date for going carbon neutral. But she said that the initiative announced Tuesday would help the company become more energy efficient.

"In the long term, they're going to help us both with our growth and our environmental goals," Stevens said.

"We set those (goals) because they were very aspirational. We thought it was important ... to communicate a sense of commitment."

The move, aligning Disney with a growing coterie of US companies that have pledged to reduce their carbon footprints, comes after the company's movie studio had a worldwide hit with the animated WALL-E, which depicts a world that becomes environmentally uninhabitable. (dpa)