LAS VEGAS—During the month of May, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Team Members around the globe participated in the company’s annual Sands ECO360 Clean Plate Challenge, a campaign aligned with the company’s sustainability program to reduce food waste. The event was an engagement and educational initiative designed to encourage Team Members at all Las Vegas Sands’ properties in both the United States and Asia to only take as much food as they’ll consume when eating in the Team Member Dining Rooms.
“Food waste is a very relevant issue for the hospitality industry and the annual Sands ECO360 Clean Plate Challenge is an excellent way for our Team Members to participate in an activity that is not only beneficial to our business but also to the environment,” said Katarina Tesarova, Vice President of Global Sustainability at Las Vegas Sands. “Educating people about the various ways they can help to minimize their impact on the planet is an important component to realizing a more sustainable future for all of us. This challenge is just one example of the global engagement initiatives we designed for our Team Members to take actions and make the world a more sustainable place to live.”
Prior to the event, property sustainability teams consulted and collaborated with their respective property chefs in order to encourage a “zero-waste” meal service, helping the company cut pre-consumer food waste. During the challenge itself, the total number of Team Members that did their part and consumed all the food on their plate were entered into a raffle drawing of various prizes. The total number of clean plates was tracked by each property. Any plate that had edible food waste on it was excluded from the count.
Almost 100,000 Clean Plates Recorded
During the three-day challenge, a total of 98,152 clean plates were recorded. Following the meal services, any leftover food was either donated to a local charity or fed into on-site food waste digesters, which turn food into greywater that can be safely discharged. These initiatives prevented any food waste from being sent to a landfill.
Las Vegas Sands is working to align its Sands ECO360 global sustainability strategy with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 aspirational objectives to guide actions of governments, international agencies, civil society and other institutions over the next 15 years. The Clean Plate Challenge is in line with Goal 12, which calls for, among other targets, a 50 percent reduction of per capita global food waste by 2030 at the retail and consumer levels, in addition to reducing food losses along production and supply chains.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, an estimated one-third of food produced worldwide is wasted, which has tremendous economic, social and environmental consequences. Las Vegas Sands believes reducing food waste is one of the easiest personal efforts to reduce carbon emissions and make a contribution towards a better environment for the entire planet.
