Las Vegas casinos going green?
4th August, 2008
When you think of Las Vegas, you think of how completely over-the-top every aspect of the town is, most notably its energy consumption and waste production.
In the near future, this perception could change because plans are already being made 100 million square feet of construction in and around the Las Vegas Strip to be held under the U.S. Green Building Council. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) has become an important part of the process to making these casino resort and hotels more environmentally friendly and help patrons become more environmentally aware – providing a certification that verifies environmentally friendly policies.
“There’s only so many places where projects like these can happen,” said Brendan Owens, vice president of the U.S. Green Building Council for LEED certification. “Las Vegas can serve as a bellwether for mainstream companies and organizations that are not necessarily focused on the environment to say, ‘You know what? These guys are doing it, so can we.”
The nation’s largest LEED-certified building, as of May, is the Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino, which is only 7 months old – 8.3 million square feet that cost $1.9 billion.
“The way I look at the Palazzo, for example, is that the casino is 250,000 square feet and the rest of the project is 8 million square feet, so we needed to be able to recognize the achievement on the bulk of the project,” Owens said.
There are many projects looking for LEED certifications, which including the $.8 billion Echelon resort, the $2.9 billion Fontainebleau Resort and the $1.9 billion tower at Caesars Palace.
“You think Vegas, you just think of this huge international symbol of waste,” said Mark Vitter of Manchester, England. “I love Las Vegas, but its very existence is almost a crime against nature. No amount of conservation can replace what ought not be used in the first place.”
