Name: Jessica Rosman
Title: Director of Supplier Diversity and Sustainability
Organization: Caesars Entertainment Corp.
Years with Organization: Five
Primary responsibilities: “Encouraging minority- and women-owned businesses in our supply chain—focusing on economic inclusion. Looking at all the appropriations we currently deal with. I have also been extremely involved in waste management.”
Organization’s most significant sustainability-related accomplishment so far: “We have reduced our carbon emissions by 12 percent over the last five years.”
Organization’s most significant sustainability-related challenge: “Educating our supply chain so that companies will continue to be efficient. Working with our top suppliers and encouraging them to follow in our footsteps.”
LAS VEGAS—Timing may not always be everything but in Jessica Rosman’s case it was definitely advantageous. It was just a day after Caesars Entertainment launched its CodeGreen program that she interviewed for a President’s Associate internship. Her interest area was sustainability. She got the internship in Las Vegas and worked with the food and beverage sourcing team—an “incredible experience,” she says. Just a few months later she was offered a full-time position with the same sourcing team.
Today, as Director of Supplier Diversity and Sustainability for Caesars, Rosman is part of a team committed to making sure that all suppliers get a fair chance to compete for Caesars’ business—including those businesses owned by women and minorities. Rosman’s goal is to also make sure that those that do business with Caesars share similar values in the area of environmental responsibility.
Rosman is on the board of the Women’s Business Enterprise Council for the Western Region, the new Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council, and the Las Vegas Water Conservation Coalition. Rosman said Caesars is represented at two to three large scale diversity events a month, adding that for every new casino it develops, it holds vendor fairs eight months in advance.
No Typical Day for Jessica
For her, Rosman said there is no typical day. “I work within a lot of the local regions,” she says. “Oftentimes with small businesses. We have significantly increased the number of companies we have been able to reach.”
Last year Caesars accelerated its sustainable supply chain strategy and is engaging suppliers around three areas of concern: electronics, seafood and paper. The company’s aim is to identify and reward those suppliers that offer eco-friendly products and use recycled or other sustainably sourced materials, such as those complying with green certifications like Green Seal, Eco-Logo, Green Guard, LEED, Organic, and Rainforest Alliance.
One of Rosman’s main areas of interest is removing waste from the supply chain. As one example, she said last year Caesars launched a “bottle to keg” project. A portion of its wine is now delivered in kegs instead of bottles, helping the environment in multiple ways.
Rosman is particularly proud of her work with Clean the World. One million partially used soap bars are now collected by Caesars associates each year for reprocessing by Clean the World. Thanks to $250,000 in grants from the Caesars Foundation and founding partner, Caesars Entertainment Corp., Clean the World was able to open a soap recycling facility in Las Vegas almost two years ago.
High Diversion Rate Reached at Some Hotels
“Over the last two years we have gotten to a more than 50 percent diversion rate at some of our Las Vegas properties,” Rosman says. In 2012, more than 2,700 tons of cardboard was recycled and 10,000 tons of total items was recycled or diverted in 2012. That 10,000 number climbed to more than 20,000 in 2013 thanks to an increased emphasis on food waste composting.
Rosman says her interest in sustainability extends back to when she was just a child. “I remember recycling bottles when I was six or seven,” she says.
Rosman received her BA in International Development Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her MBA in Brand Management & Entrepreneurship from the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.
A Las Vegas native, Rosman regularly tutors high school students at Green Valley High School and has volunteered with Shade Tree, U.S. Green Building Council, Jewish Federation, Teacher’s EXCHANGE, Clean the World and the Boys & Girls Club of America.
Go to Caesars Entertainment Corp.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
