Verde Las Vegas?
Sin City grew up gambling with its resources, but its current strategy is focused on the long game and, dare we say it, sustainable investment.
Convergence. That's the word that Gwen Migita, vice president of sustainability and community affairs for Caesars Entertainment Corporation, uses to describe the city-wide movement toward a more environmentally and socially sustainable Las Vegas.
On the one hand, the city is coping with the current resurgence downtown—growth that could easily send its electricity and water consumption skyrocketing. Much of the ink around that is spilled on Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: the $350 millionDowntown Project he kicked off to revitalize the city, support small local businesses, improve schools and make Las Vegas it a techie startup hub, as well as his Project 100 to bring better transportation options to Sin City.
But Fremont Street's rebirth started before the shoe mogul became the city's de facto ambassador, says Rick Van Diepen, executive director of Green Chips, a Las Vegas-based nonprofit working with public and private stakeholders on clean energy and development projects. "[Hsieh's] efforts are an endorsement that we care about our quality of life. You can feel it, the investment in the community, the environment, the social fabric," he says, crediting former Mayor Oscar Goodman for seeing the potential in downtown. "The seeds were definitely planted, and then Tony kicked it into hyperdrive," he says.
On the other hand is evidence of an increasingly eco-friendly Las Vegas Strip.
Read full article on SmartPlanet here.
