With Nevada in an energy and water crunch, the casino industry is responding strongly.
The Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy (GOE) recently awarded property tax incentives to 11 Caesars Entertainment-affiliated casino resorts for introducing significant energy and water savings measures.
The resorts received the GOE incentive after meeting state regulations and receiving a prestigious Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver or Gold equivalency from the U.S. Green Building Council.
“Working with Caesars casinos to make such an enormous quantity of square feet in Nevada more energy efficient was historic,” said GOE Director Paul Thomsen. “Project successes like this confirm Nevada’s status as a national leader in efficient construction and design.”
In 2015, GOE awarded tax incentives to the owners of 22 buildings in Nevada that achieved LEED certification or equivalency, for a total of more than 46 million square feet. The largest contributor to this robust figure was the Caesars Entertainment properties at 28.5 million square feet.
The 11 Caesars Entertainment casino-resort and entertainment properties receiving a GOE property tax incentive are Caesars Palace, Flamingo Las Vegas, Harrah’s Las Vegas, Harrah’s Laughlin, Harrah’s Reno, Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, Harveys Lake Tahoe, Paris Las Vegas, The LINQ Hotel & Casino, Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, and Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.
“We choose to pursue LEED equivalency because of its rigorous approach to measurable environmentally sound building design, construction, operations and maintenance,” Caesars Entertainment’s Director of Facilities, Engineering and Sustainable Operations Eric Dominguez said.
To achieve LEED equivalency, Caesars is building upon current conservation efforts already in-place by installing energy efficient light emitting diode (LED) lights, introducing day lighting controls, and rewiring lighting systems for better control.
Caesars is also educating their team members on new purchasing processes that encourage teams to buy supplies that are made with recycled content, as well as training them on new sustainability procedures that enhance facility operations.
Meanwhile, with Lake Mead water levels low and a years-long drought impacting much of the West and Southwest U.S., Las Vegas casinos have undertaken exceptionally effective water conservation measures.
During the Nevada Governor’s Drought Summit held last month in Carson City, casino executives outlined several ways in which they reduce water usage and promote water conservation.
Las Vegas has more than 150,000 hotel rooms producing literally tons of laundry each day. To reduce water usage by more than two-thirds, bedding, towels, and pillowcases are run through large tunnel washers that use less water while pushing laundry through various stages of water, from wash through rinse.
Casinos also employ dry-thawing of meat instead of running it under cold water. Placing frozen meats in coolers to thaw overnight instead of running water over the meat in the morning saves countless millions of gallons of water each year.
Local golf courses also have implemented water conservation measures by replacing about a third of their turf with desert landscaping and using computerized irrigation systems to tightly regulate water usage and ensure no water is wasted.
The water-conservation measures were announced around the same time a third straw was opened in Lake Mead to ensure a continued water supply for several years.
