Las Vegas Sands Retains A List Position by CDP and Discusses the Importance of Transparency About Environmental Performance

Las Vegas Sands was recently recognized on the Climate Change and Water A List by CDP, the international nonprofit environmental disclosure platform.  This is the company’s fourth year in a row to attain a leadership position for Climate Change and is the company’s first time responding to the Water recognition.  The company has participated in CDP disclosure since 2012, beginning with reporting on climate change initiatives and performance.  The achievement of the Climate Change A List highlights the company’s efforts towards cutting emissions, mitigating climate risks, and building Integrated Resorts responsibly.  The achievement of Water A List focuses on the company’s accomplishments in water efficiency and conservation. 

“In 2012, our first year responding to the CDP, we measured and verified our carbon inventory,” Jenny Yu-Mattson, Executive Director of Global Sustainability, said.  “We tracked our utility consumption measured through metrics such as electricity, natural gas, fuel consumptions with the data verified by a third auditor.  The disclosure put transparency to our environmental performance, relying on a structured well-recognized framework.  We have chosen CDP platform because it is the best for carbon disclosures and its questionnaire offers guidance and ideas on how to adjust our measurements, goals, disclosures and new initiatives for upcoming years.  CDP always pushes the envelope and makes our teams think, which advances our program.”

CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts.  Over the past 15 years, they have created a system that has resulted in unparalleled engagement on environmental issues worldwide.  To achieve this, CDP, formerly known the Carbon Disclosure Project, runs the global disclosure system that enables companies, cities, states and regions to measure and manage their environmental impacts.  CDP has the most comprehensive collection of self-reported environmental data in the world.  They ask companies for data on their environmental performance, then transform that data into detailed analysis on critical environmental risks, opportunities and impacts.  Then investors, businesses and policy makers use the data collected to make better decisions, manage risk and capitalize on opportunities.  Companies disclose their data on climate change, supply chain, water and forests.  The 2012 response led to the sustainability team setting their first five-year target for emission, water and waste management, which provided a discipline for the team to what they are currently doing and what they plan to achieve every year. 

“In our second year, we included in the then-used Climate Disclosure Leadership Index and made it to the Carbon Performance Leadership Index in 2015,” she said.  “Our science-based targets also have been driven by the CDP disclosures where we worked to set meaningful emissions reduction targets to combat global climate change.   It’s a huge milestone in our journey as we set aggressive targets to not only reduce the emissions at our existing operations but also offset emissions of our two newly opened resorts - The St. Regis Macao and The Parisian Macao.   CDP always makes us think ahead about what we can do better.  ” Yu-Mattson says that the CDP allows the team to have a tool to measure and disclose in a strategic way and reporting for CDP will remain a huge part of the work in the future since climate change will only gain importance in the sustainability world as the reduction journey continues. 

“Measurements help us see the reductions that we are attaining, but also identify what we need to work on,” she said.  “It’s not just one person’s work; it requires the input of many Team Members at all of our properties.  The CDP program is a comprehensive framework that continues to evolve, which keeps us challenged.  It inspires us to address climate change in a strategic way.”