Las Vegas Sands Green Ideas Challenge

Overview

The Las Vegas Sands Corporation (LVS) demonstrates its commitment to sustainability and corporate responsibility through its Sands ECO360 Global Sustainability Strategy, a comprehensive roadmap to minimizing environmental impact through sustainable building development and resort operations. The Sands ECO360 strategy is made of four key pillars: green buildings, environmentally responsible operations, green meetings and events, and stakeholder engagement. As part of the Stakeholder engagement pillar, LVS encourages its guests, Team Members, and community to learn more about sustainability and join in its corporate efforts. A leading example of this is the Green Ideas Challenge implemented at The Venetian, The Palazzo, and Sands Expo which allowed resort staff to help identify opportunities for energy or water savings.

The sustainability team encouraged staff to participate in the Green Ideas Challenge through emails, internal newsletters, signage posted in the back of house areas and department offices, and during staff meetings. Across the three facilities, 9,000 Team Members submitted 180 unique ideas on sustainability improvement opportunities they identified in their everyday tasks. Ideas ranged from reducing energy use on the hotel’s casino floor to minimizing food waste.

The Challenge had two rounds of judging. In Round 1, the property sustainability team gave a score to each idea submitted based on criteria like innovation, measurable results, achievability, relevance, and timing. The 10 highest-scoring ideas moved to Round 2; executives from the sustainability team and property leadership evaluated each idea based on implementation feasibility. To incentivize staff participation, winners of the Green Ideas Challenge received prizes such as a 1-night stay at a Palazzo suite, show tickets, or cash.

Upon selection, the top-3 ideas were implemented by the sustainability team; two have already helped Sands recognize significant water savings. The winning ideas were:

Repurpose or donate slightly damaged items from guest suites to a local charity;
Install motion sensors on the faucets in the two Team Member Dining Room dishwashing areas to avoid excess running water; and
Calibrate faucet sensors in all back-of-house restrooms to not run longer than necessary (adjusted faucet run time to 20 seconds).

Overall, the cumulative annual water savings from both faucet sensor solutions are estimated at 960,000 gallons. The initial cost for the upgrades was $1,500, with a roughly 5-month return on investment.

Due to the success of this Green Ideas Challenge, the sustainability team at The Venetian and The Palazzo is excited to continue similar employee engagement campaigns that empower team members to contribute to LVS’s global mission and educate staff on all aspects of sustainability.

For more information on the Sands ECO360 program, visit: http://www.sands.com/sands-eco-360/our-vision.html

Green Ideas Challenge Final Round Scorecard and judging criteria

Sample Green Ideas Challenge Internal Newsletter

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