Environmental Sustainability: Company Hosts Seventh Annual National Clean Energy Summit | September 2014 CSR Newsletter
Clean energy visionaries and leaders, public officials, business executives, policy experts, entrepreneurs, investors, citizens, and students gathered for the annual National Clean Energy Summit.
Held at Mandalay Bay for the second consecutive year, the day-long summit brought together politicos and entrepreneurs to discuss public-private partnerships to deploy clean energy, investing in innovation and building the infrastructure needed to modernize our nation’s electric grid. Led by Hillary Clinton and Sen. Harry Reid, the summit focused on reducing carbon emissions as well as the demands to revamp the nation’s infrastructure.
“I am absolutely confident we can forge the kind of clean energy future that can be used by our children and grandchildren before it’s too late,” Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, told the crowd gathered for her keynote address. “We must keep moving forward in renewables and focus more on clean energy. This is the most consequential, sweeping collection of challenges we (the U.S.) face.”
Earlier in the summit, John Podesta, Counselor to President Obama and moderator of the Business Leadership on Carbon Reduction panel, conveyed a similar message about ensuring the future of clean energy by fostering ongoing partnerships between industry and political leaders.
“I’m confident today’s conversations will continue the trend of energy change and encourage the drivers behind it,” said Mr. Podesta. “Local leaders can take powerful steps to prevent negative climate change.”
Mr. Podesta led the discussion that included MGM Resorts Chairman Jim Murren, Henry CisnerosFormer Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Jon Huntsman, Former Governor of Utah, and Elizabeth Littlefield, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Leading off, Mr. Murren said that when Company leaders were planning CityCenter a decade ago, he wanted to make sure that the project would extend the boundaries of environmental stewardship in Las Vegas and beyond.
“We soon learned that green business is good business, and people are booking into our convention centers and meeting places for this reason,” Mr. Murren said. “As long as I’m chairman of this company I’m committed to build at the Gold Standard (U.S. Green Building Council certification) and we’ve already started with our new project in Maryland and the new arena right here in the city.
“You have to have the culture to make the change, and we at MGM do. But the culture just doesn’t happen, it takes communication and activism,” he said. “I want everyone to do what we’re doing.”
MGM Resorts Board of Directors Member Rose McKinney-James, who is also the Chair of the Clean Energy Project, moderated a panel on user-friendly clean energy that included executives from five leading alternative energy companies offering a range of products, from smart thermometers and smoke alarms, to energy-reducing glass and home solar installations.
“We need to make products that are consumer-friendly and easy to use and/or install. With solar, the policies in Nevada are wonderful which has opened up the framework for making this technology more accessible to the consumer,” Lyndon Rive, Founder and CEO of SolarCity said.
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