More and more casinos are popping up in green news stories in recent years, despite the fact that Las Vegas isn’t high in the minds of many as a particularly green city.
Beneath all that neon and fountains and non-native landscaping is a surprisingly green city, with many casinos working hard over the last decade to significantly reduce both their water consumption and their carbon footprint.
Much of the green revolution in Vegas is driven by the very same principle that guides much of the city’s activities and gambling at casino games: chasing cold, hard cash.
Even small incremental energy savings can add up to millions of dollars each year for the massive hotels and casinos of Las Vegas, making them prime candidates for adopting many cutting-edge green technologies and building techniques - not to mention tapping into tax incentives and grants.
Just a few of the green initiatives in place at many Vegas casinos include solar panels, native plants, and water recycling and purification systems, with many of these providing a rapid return on investment given the scope and scale of the energy consumption of an average Vegas casino.
Shaving off just fractions of a percent of the energy costs for most casinos can add up to millions in savings each year, giving casinos a financial incentive to be as green as possible.
The Palazzo in Las Vegas became the world’s largest building project to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certificate from the US Green Building Council when it received the award; it was joined in that exclusive club by the City Center Las Vegas project which was completed in 2010 and includes 17 million square feet of gaming, living, and retail space. Green casino techniques used in both included low-flow shower heads, LED lighting, and energy efficient fixtures.
Many casinos and hotels also adopting greener alternatives when it comes to laundry services,including not changing the sheets daily unless requested and encouraging the re-use of towels and other linens.
The Red Rock Casino has aggressively pursued a recycling program that reclaims more than 70 tons of plastic, cardboard, and solid waste every month in addition to donating unused food to local animal farms and converting 30,000 gallons of kitchen grease into bio-diesel fuel each year.
The city of Las Vegas has also worked hard over the last decade to become more efficient with water consumption, offering incentives to homeowners to use native plants or xeriscaping instead of grass.
The city estimates that overall annual water usage has dropped by about 18 billion gallons since various initiatives were adopted, with the reduction coming even as the city’s population overall grew dramatically.
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