MACAO—Sands China Ltd. used the month of March to shine an additional spotlight on environmental sustainability, focusing the attention of the public and its team members on two events addressing the ever-important topic of climate change—Earth Hour and an in-house Climate Week.
On Saturday, March 25, the company participated in Earth Hour for the 9th consecutive year, turning off lights at all its properties. Beginning at 8:30 p.m., exterior lights and non-essential indoor lights were turned off for one hour at Sands Macao; The Venetian Macao; The Plaza Macao featuring Four Seasons; Sands Cotai Central featuring St. Regis, Conrad, Sheraton, and Holiday Inn; and, for the first time since its grand opening last September, The Parisian Macao.
The global Earth Hour initiative has a goal of raising awareness of climate change by encouraging eco-conscious individuals, communities, households and businesses to switch off their lights for one hour.
Sands China then followed up this year’s Earth Hour observance with a Climate Week event, engaging team members to take action on climate change (Twitter hashtags #ECO360 and #ChangeClimateChange). Held March 27 to 31 at employee back-of-house areas, Climate Week featured an Energy Saving Roadshow. It encouraged team members to save energy at home and further support the environmental goals of Earth Hour and Sands ECO360 degrees by changing out their homes’ incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs for ultra energy-efficient LEDs. Team members were able to buy LED bulbs at the roadshow at a discounted price, and to bring in their old lightbulbs from home for recycling.
Highlighting the Importance of Sustainability
“Sands China always looks forward to supporting Earth Hour, and we are pleased to have added our own Climate Week event this year as well for our team members,” said Mark McWhinnie, Senior Vice President of Resort Operations and Development for Sands China Ltd. “Both of these initiatives raise awareness about the importance of environmental sustainability and are in line with the goals of our Sands ECO360 degrees global sustainability strategy.”
With Earth Hour and Climate Week, Sands China continues its long-held strategy of implementing green initiatives at its properties. These events are just two examples of how Sands China applies the Sands ECO360 degrees global sustainability strategy to its operations. Examining the area of electricity conservation alone, energy-saving LED lights and the optimization of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems allowed Sands China to save a total of 31 million kWh of electricity in 2016—the equivalent to the energy needed to power more than 77,500 households for one month.
Sands China’s eco-friendly measures continue to contribute to more sustainable operations, meanwhile earning the company recognition for its efforts. In April 2014, The Venetian Macao became the first entity in Macao and one of the first two integrated resorts in Asia to receive the prominent ISO 20121 Event Sustainability Management System certification. And in 2015 it received an ISO 9001:2008 certification for the quality management system of its convention and exhibition services. In addition, five hotels at Sands China properties are winners of the Macao SAR government’s Macau Green Hotel Gold Award. These and many other distinctions continue to highlight the success of Sands China’s ongoing sustainability efforts.
