LAS VEGAS—Las Vegas Sands Corp., a leading international developer of multi-use integrated resorts, launched its custom Sands Eco 360° Meetings program. The program extends the Las Vegas Sands’ award-winning sustainability efforts to its large meeting and convention customers, giving them the opportunity to host gatherings in the largest LEED building in the world in a more environmentally friendly way.
“The launch of Sands Eco 360° Meetings is a natural expansion of Sands’ commitment to respect the environment in a comprehensive and impactful way, and to build a legacy of a cleaner and safer world for future generations,” said Michael Leven, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp. “It is also the right thing for Las Vegas Sands to do for our group customers, who have a growing interest and dedication to conduct business in an environmentally responsible way. Many of our meeting customers have already benefited from the best-in-class service we can provide, and we’re ready to share these results widely.”
The Sands Eco 360° Meetings program offers meeting and convention planners a number of ways to reduce their events’ environmental impact. Large-event planners benefit from the four pillars of Sands Eco 360°, which include green building and construction, environmentally responsible operational practices, sustainable purchasing policies and employee engagement in the program.
Clean the World Partner
“Las Vegas Sands was instrumental in helping us meet our environmental stewardship goals for our annual sales meeting,” said Jennifer Romo, meeting partner for Genentech. “They also worked with us to pilot the Clean the World program at Las Vegas Sands, and we’re thrilled that it is now a hotel-wide initiative to support the environment and communities.” Clean the World is one of the charitable organizations that Las Vegas Sands has partnered with as part of its environmental stewardship commitment. The organization works with more than 1,100 hospitality partners to collect, recycle and distribute hotel soaps and bottled amenities to those in need in the United States and more than 45 countries, diverting more than 1.2 million pounds of waste from local landfills.
Broadly, implementing sustainable business practices has allowed Las Vegas Sands to make a measurable impact on the environment in several key areas. Its energy and water conservation practices save enough electricity annually to power 6,500 average American homes, as well as saving 130 million gallons of potable water per year. The company also has developed a property-wide recycling program, which recycles enough materials to make it one of the largest single-property recyclers in Las Vegas. “What’s unique about Las Vegas Sands for meeting planners is that our team will customize our offering to meet each client’s sustainability goals,” continued Leven. “We build upon a solid foundation of leading environmental practices, but will work to make even further changes according to our customers’ individual goals.”
Las Vegas Sands offers convention and meetings customers several ways to further extend stewardship practices. Meeting planners have the option of selecting banquet menus that feature dishes made with organic foods, as well as sustainable seafood and fair trade, shade-grown coffee and tea. The company also recycles leftover materials from large meetings, and distributes unused food from meetings to those in need. A full description of the Sands Eco 360° Meetings program is available at www.venetian.com/Las-Vegas-Meetings/eco360/.
Las Vegas Sands introduced the Sands Eco 360° Global Sustainable Development program in March 2010. The program integrates Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s best practices, technologies and methodologies in the area of sustainability across all properties. The launch of Sands Eco 360° was highlighted with the announcement that the company’s Venetian Resort and Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas had achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Existing Buildings Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The combined Venetian, Sands Expo, and Palazzo Las Vegas, which in 2008 received LEED for New Construction Silver certification, now comprise the largest LEED building in the world.
