Sands ECO360 Emphasizes Importance of Team Member Engagement While Reducing Environmental Impact

Las Vegas Sands, through its award-winning sustainability program Sands ECO360, continuously focuses on reducing environmental impact while engaging Team Members and partners to unite around the protection of our planet.  Engaging Team Members with various activities and initiatives around the world allows its over 46,000 Team Members to understand the efforts that the company makes to reduce its footprint, while also learning how to reduce their own impact in their daily lives, at work and at home. 

For Team Member Engagement, the sustainability program develops annual environmental campaigns and education events.  Sustainability champions are crowned at all levels of the organization to help integrate Sands ECO360 initiatives into the company’s daily operations.  In Las Vegas, some of the major initiatives include Earth Hour, Sustainability Quizzes, property tours that highlight The Venetian Resort’s sustainable features, and various external tours of partner’s facilities like Republic Services Material Recovery Facility, Springs Preserve and Switch Data Center. 

“We continuously aim to engage and enlighten our Team Members through various activities at our properties in Las Vegas,” said Marc Komatsu, manager of sustainability at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas.  “With Responsible Consumption Week, we held week long initiatives where we demonstrated a zero waste menu for Team Members, and Chef Eric provided a menu that had no waste and included a healthy cooking demonstration.  We also held a Strawless and Linen Napkin Challenge, challenging Team Members not to take a plastic straw for the day and also to reduce their paper napkin usage.”

Globally, all properties take part in the Clean Plate Challenge, which encourages Team Members to not waste food in the Team Member Dining Rooms.  This year at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, the property donated one dollar to Food from the Heart, a local non-profit that runs a food distribution program for the needy, for every clean plate returned in the dining room.  Over 4,000 clean plates were counted and Team Members were encouraged to think about the importance of reducing food waste. 

“We conduct various activities for our Team Members from the Earth Hour Walk organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), where our Team Members walk in the dark to increase awareness and take positive action of having lights out for one hour, to our Coastal Clean Up, where over 150 Team Members collected trash at Pasir Ris Park Beach,” said Kevin Teng, executive director of design and construction at Marina Bay Sands.  “The event aimed to not only clean the shores, but also to help Team Members gain awareness of the impacts of single-use plastics on the environment. The event was held in support of the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore, which aims to track and remove debris from the shorelines, waterways and beaches of the world's lakes, rivers and oceans.  Activities like these not only raise awareness to global issues, but also alert Team Members to the issues that are impacting their local communities.” 

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