LAS VEGAS
Las Vegas Sands Corp. has announced that two of its properties in Asia have become the first integrated resorts in the region to receive the prestigious sustainability certification.
Marina Bay Sands and the Venetian Macao, Las Vegas Sands’ integrated resorts in Singapore and Macao, have both earned the ISO 20121 Event Sustainability Management System certification. ISO 20121 is developed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the world’s largest developer of voluntary international standards.
The standard provides meeting venues and event planners a framework of policies, procedures and processes that have been designed to address the management of environmental, economic and social sustainability issues throughout an event cycle.
“By earning this certification, The Venetian Macao and Marina Bay Sands Singapore have significantly improved their capability to help meeting customers achieve their sustainability objectives and improve their event results," said Norbert Riezler, chief procurement and sustainability officer for Las Vegas Sands. "It also further demonstrates the commitment Las Vegas Sands has made to being a global leader in sustainable building and business practices, which includes offering our meeting and convention customers a wide array of options to plan more environmentally-conscious events. We hope our efforts will inspire other organizations in Asia and globally to adopt more stringent sustainable practices."
As part of the implementation of the ISO standards for sustainable events, the teams at Marina Bay Sands and the Venetian Macao interviewed hundreds of internal and external customers and business partners about the key issues and opportunities in sustainability, and incorporated their feedback into the properties’ overall sustainability strategy.
As a result of these exchanges, the properties enhanced their sustainable meeting options offered to customers. Some choices for Sands customers include sustainable food menus which promote local, sustainable and healthy ingredients, the option to incorporate a volunteer opportunity for meeting attendees and Sands ECO360° Concierge services to assistant in planning a sustainable event.
Sustainable Meetings Program
Sands’ achievement in earning the ISO certification is driven by Sands ECO360° Meetings Program. Launched in September 2011, the Sands ECO360⁰ Meetings program is part of Sands' overall global sustainability program, Sands ECO360°.
Introduced in March 2010, Sands ECO360⁰ integrates Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s best practices, technologies and methodologies in the area of sustainability across all properties and serves as a global roadmap for continuous improvement of its environmental stewardship.
The ISO 20121 certification is awarded by BSI, an independent certification body for management systems.
"We believe this achievement will bring positive impact to society, motivating other companies to adopt sustainable event management in their business to enhance management efficiency, company competitiveness and reputation," said Emmanuel Herve, Managing Director of BSI Hong Kong, and vice president, standards and professional service of BSI Asia Pacific.
In addition to being ISO 20121 certified, Marina Bay Sands is also the single largest building in Singapore to be conferred the Green Mark Gold Award by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) in 2012 and the first venue outside of the United States to receive the Apex/ASTM Level 1 certification for sustainable meetings in 2013.
The Venetian Macao has received Macao Green Hotel Gold Award. Both properties also achieved Bronze Benchmarking by EarthCheck.
