MGM Resorts International recently released its 2016 Annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report. I recently wrote about Hersha Hospitality Trust’s 2016 Sustainability Report and just posted about the Javits Center releasing its first Sustainability Report. It must be reporting season. MGM Resorts’ report describes its CSR philosophy, governance and culture, and summarizes its developments in the pillars of Diversity and Inclusion, Philanthropy and Community Engagement and Environmental Sustainability. The report is long—173 pages—but MGM has a lot of good stories to tell. For example, in 2016, 5,600 employees donated 103,000 volunteer hours of community service. MGM achieved LEED Gold certification for T-Mobile Arena, The Park and MGM National Harbor; and moved to the 70 percent completion mark in its substitution of all resort lighting with energy-efficient LED lamps.
Here are some additional highlights I saw in the report:
- MGM is a major job creator in its communities, paying competitive wages and benefits to 75,000 employees across all properties as of year-end 2016.
- Almost 50,000 tons of materials were diverted from landfills.
- MGM National Harbor generates electricity using one of the D.C. area’s largest Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants.
- Also at MGM National Harbor, a highly reflective white roof helps reduce building heat gain and the urban heat island effect.
- At MGM National Harbor, a 700,000 gallon cistern was installed to collect, store, treat, and reuse rainwater, reducing reliance on municipal water for irrigation, cooling, and sanitary needs.
- Inasmuch as almost 69 percent of employees are diverse, MGM Resorts is a majority-minority company.
- Every resort property and the corporate division has an active Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Council, which consists of volunteer employees (management and front-line) at that business unit led by an employee chair and co-chair, with support from the business unit’s executive management committee and other managers.
- In 2016, $142 million was spent with diverse-owned business enterprises.
- In January 2016 the federal government declared a state of emergency public health crisis due to lead contamination of the public water supply for over 100,000 residents (including 6,000 to 12,000 children) of Flint, Mich., 70 miles from MGM Grand Detroit. Government agencies instructed Flint residents to use only bottled water for drinking, cooking and bathing. In response to this crisis, MGM Grand Detroit’s warehouse team, in partnership with Triumph Church of Flint, made weekly trips to Flint to distribute 284,500 bottles of water donated by the resort.
- In 2016, MGM Resorts completed expansion of America’s largest contiguous rooftop solar array. 26,000 panels. 8.3 megawatts. 28 acres. Atop the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.
- In 2016, MGM Resorts installed energy-efficient motors and LEDs in 800 walk-in coolers.
- In 2016, MGM Resorts removed 42,000 square feet of turf.
- Circus Circus employees extend the useful life of towels and linens by repurposing them into cleaning rags.
- To educate and encourage employees to take action on reducing their own environmental footprint, MGM Resorts launched a social and interactive platform called My Green Advantage. By recommending daily habits such as turning off the faucet when brushing teeth, or only printing using double sided printing, the company encourages positive change. Each action taken is linked to a point system that translates into reductions in environmental impacts. The points encourage friendly competition among colleagues who can see progress on leaderboards and through earned digital badges. With nearly 20,000 employees on My Green Advantage, small daily actions have added up to big environmental change.
To learn more about MGM Resorts’ 2016 accomplishments and to access the 2016 report, click here.
