Sands ECO360: John Hess, Executive Director of Engineering

When The Palazzo was first being constructed, Las Vegas Sands had an opportunity to build it in a way that would be environmentally friendly as a LEED certified, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, building. Based on this initiative, Las Vegas Sands began to take on several opportunities in sustainability for new and existing buildings. As part of the initial group that led to the development of Sands ECO360, John Hess, corporate executive director of Engineering, provides technical support during all phases of construction for new buildings and major renovation projects.

“The company realized the significant opportunities to benefit the environment and have solid investment performance with our focused efforts to improve our buildings and operations,” Hess said.

In his position, Hess reviews the engineering design and construction of the building infrastructure of new and existing properties. He also identifies and implements energy and water conservation projects, certain environmental compliance initiatives, and evaluating new products.  

Since the successful LEED certification achievement for the Las Vegas properties, Hess has worked on additional milestones for Sands ECO360, which includes securing the companies first LEED certification in Macao for The Parisian Macao.  He also regularly updates and distributes Sustainable Development Standards to assist consultants in utilizing our leading edge practices for major renovations and new construction projects.

“We continue to implement advanced heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technologies at our existing properties,” he said.  “We also deploy smart building controls to maintain our best performance and assist our Facilities departments by leveraging their resources.”

Hess played a major role in conserving hundreds of millions of kilowatt hours of electricity and hundreds of millions gallons of water, while achieving solid financial performance for the company. Notable water conservation projects include a combination of low bathroom fixtures and a special cooling tower system. Together with the Global Sustainability Department and sustainability teams at each property, they were able to deploy LED lighting throughout new and existing properties, an example of the collaboration between the departments that allows for sustainable engineering initiatives to come to fruition.  Hess was also able to report a significant electricity reduction with improved infrastructure compared to normal baseline building at the time of The Palazzo’s design and construction. The Palazzo’s energy evaluation included a total savings of 40 percent for lighting, 43 percent for cooling, 32 percent for ventilation fans, and 55 percent for exterior lighting.

“We are very fortunate senior management is so supportive of our efforts to ‘push the envelope’ and improve our responsible business practices,” Hess said.