GreenBiz: Green energy in the gaming industry

Monday, July 13, 2009  

"When I asked Anne Kelly, Director of Governance at Ceres, why the organization had never assessed the gaming industry before -- noting that Harrah's Entertainment, the biggest player, had 2008 revenues of more than $10 billion and 80,000 employees globally -- she paused a moment before replying.

"Interesting question," she said, adding, "Thanks for bringing a leadership company to our attention."

Why hasn't the gaming industry been looked at by the sustainability media and ranking organizations, and through mainstream media's sustainability lens? Are there leaders and learners, and what are they doing? Why aren't there Energy Star slot machines?

It's not because the industry is too small, or because it has limited impacts on people and planet. The next two largest gaming/entertainment companies, MGM Mirage and Las Vegas Sands, had 2008 revenues of $7.2 billion and $4.4 billion, respectively, and employee counts of 54,000 and 28,000. The U.S. casino industry as a whole had a 2008 turnover of $32 billion. Harrah's, looked at through a hospitality lens, is one of the largest hotel chains in the world, with 1.5 million square feet of meeting and convention space. There are casinos in 40 U.S. states and overseas.

With regard to impacts, suffice it to say that this isn't the software industry, which with some justification points out that its core activity is rearranging electrons. Far from it: When you think of Las Vegas, the emblematic casino town, the images that come to mind are prodigious fountains in one of the driest parts of the world, a constellation of lights visible from outer space, and customers who come to Vegas for entertainment and escape, not to reduce, reuse, recycle."

Get the Story:
Steve Voien: Where Are All The Energy Star Slot Machines? (GreenBiz.Com 7/13)