• 17-APR-2018

Wynn Las Vegas Outlines Increased Sustainable Energy Practices At The 2018 Global Meetings Industry Day

LAS VEGAS (April 17, 2018) — Leaders from the top resort companies in Las Vegas recently convened for the 2018 Global Meetings Industry Day to share current investments and future advancements that will help Las Vegas remain the number one trade show destination in the country. At the event, Wynn Las Vegas’ Director of Energy Procurement, Erik Hansen, outlined the company’s approach to sustainable energy and eco-friendly meetings and conventions practices after announcing Wynn’s new 280,000 square foot meetings space expansion.

“Our meetings and conventions clients are increasingly concerned about their impact on the environment, prioritizing clean energy use, responsibly supplying and using data, and recycling,” said Hansen. “Knowing this has served as a roadmap for us to implement several large-scale programs that satisfy these needs without sacrificing even the smallest detail of our five-star service.”

NEW MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS SPACE
The Las Vegas meetings and conventions industry generates more than $12.4 billion in economic impact, and welcomes more than 6.6 million business travelers annually. To serve this need, Wynn has combined design, technology, and sustainability when conceiving its new state-of-the-art luxury meetings and conventions development, debuting in March 2020. The new complex is an oasis in the middle of the desert, built on repurposed land that was previously the Wynn golf course, and will be adjacent to a 25-acre lagoon, a first for Las Vegas.

The grand rotunda entrance will lead to 18 new thoughtfully scaled rooms ideal for a variety of uses from small receptions to general sessions, highlighted by sunlit promenades and oversized terraces. Unique to this development is a one-of-a-kind 20,000 square foot outdoor events pavilion surrounded by natural beauty, and a remarkably engineered 83,000 square foot pillar-less ballroom.

DEDICATED SOLAR ENERGY CAPABILITIES
The new space will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy sourced from the 160-acre Wynn Solar Energy Facility, making this one of the most eco-friendly developments in Las Vegas and an industry first for a gaming operator in Nevada. The resort will begin receiving power in the first half of 2018 from the facility which will be used to offset up to seventy-five percent of its current meetings and conventions peak power requirements until the expansion opens. Combined with the recently installed solar panels covering 103,000 square feet of Wynn’s convention space rooftop, enough renewable energy will be generated to power 5,056 homes and eliminate 33,734 metric tons of CO2 emissions from the environment annually.

PROVIDING GREEN DATA
Wynn’s information technology infrastructure, housed at Switch, is powered by 100 percent renewable energy. This means that clients have access to reliable data capabilities in their on-site business centers, and can support hundreds of laptops and thousands of personal phones, with no impact on the environment. Switch was able to retire over 835 geothermal and solar renewable energy credits in 2016, and expects to retire over 850 in 2017, on behalf of Wynn Las Vegas. Independently tracked and verified, each renewable energy credit is proof that one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy resource and delivered to the energy grid.

SINGLE-STREAM RECYCLING AND ASSET RECOVERY
Wynn has implemented a wet-waste single-stream recycling program used to capture the value of a variety of materials at once. This method collects and sorts food and landscape waste, as well as recyclables such as paper, plastic, and cardboard. The reclaimed materials are repurposed for various commodity streams or used as sustainable food sources for local farm animals. The practice also reclaims items that have been inadvertently discarded, like flatware, dinnerware, glassware, linens and more, keeping them from entering landfills.