LAS VEGAS—Caesars Entertainment Corp., the world’s most diversified casino-entertainment provider, announced it has set science-based targets to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the company and throughout its supply chain. The ambitious goals demonstrate Caesars’ ongoing commitment to fighting climate change and mitigating long-term risk.
Caesars is one of over 400 global organizations that has committed to business leadership and policy alignment on climate through the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), and one of just over 100 companies to have their targets approved.
The SBTi is a collaboration among CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project), the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Targets adopted by companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are considered “science-based” if they are in line with the level of decarbonization required to keep global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial temperatures.
Caesars Entertainment commits to:
- reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions 30 percent by 2025, and 95 percent by 2050 from a 2011 base-year; and
- have 60 percent of suppliers by spend institute science-based GHG reduction targets for their operations by 2023.
“Caesars Entertainment has a well-established track record of successful environmental sustainability progress, and establishing science-based targets further demonstrates our commitment to reducing our impact on the planet,” said Mark Frissora, President and CEO of Caesars Entertainment. “We are proud to be part of this global effort.”
A Gaming Industry First
Caesars is the first gaming company to include a scope 3 goal in its verified science-based targets. This level of commitment helps to further accelerate the momentum of reducing environmental impact as it relates to the operations a company doesn’t directly control, including supply chain, vendors, etc. This indirect influence also makes it one of the most ambitious goals for a company. With thousands of suppliers throughout the company, Caesars recognized the importance of engaging the full supply chain to create meaningful impact.
“We congratulate Caesars for setting a bold science-based target aligned with climate science and the Paris Agreement,” said Cynthia Cummis, Director of Private Sector Climate Mitigation at World Resources Institute, one of the Science Based Targets initiative partners. “It is particularly encouraging to see the company extending its influence to its suppliers, leveraging its purchasing power to spread science-based target setting throughout the supply chain. We applaud this leadership, which contributes to our goal of mainstreaming science-based target setting as standard business practice.”
One of the first demonstrations of how Caesars will achieve its aggressive goals is a Request for Proposal (RFP) that will be issued in June for a major utility-scale purchase of solar energy in the Las Vegas desert, which will deliver power to its Nevada properties.
The carbon and management strategy developed by Caesars is a cornerstone of the company’s CodeGreen environmental program, which was established in 2008 and entails engaging employees and guests to understand and reduce energy use, GHG emissions, waste and water use. Caesars Entertainment has reduced its total GHG emissions by 22.9 percent since 2011.
Additional progress includes:
- Reduced water use by 21 percent per square foot since 2008; and
- Diverted 41 percent of waste from landfill in 2017.
For more information on Caesars’ Corporate Citizenship, see the 2016-2017 CSR Report and visit the Corporate Citizenship blog.
