Sands China continues series of initiatives to pursue sustainability

Sands China Ltd. has long been innovative in its environmental sustainability efforts, implementing sustainability measures within the integrated resort operator’s different properties and departments.

As a large-scale international company, one of its top priorities has been to explore new technologies to further reduce its carbon footprint, responding to the government’s call for Macau to become an eco-friendly city.

Sands China’s environmental sustainability efforts are guided by the Sands ECO360 global sustainability strategy of its parent company, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS).

The initiative drives the stewardship of responsible business operations in the areas of green buildings, environmentally responsible operations, green meetings and events, stakeholder engagement and outreach.

“Sands China remains committed to environmental sustainability, through our Sands ECO360 global sustainability strategy,” said Dr. Wilfred Wong, president of Sands China Ltd. “From construction and design to operational strategies, and from procurement to internal and external campaigns, the company is unswerving in its mission to make a positive contribution to sustainability, ensuring that our carbon footprint gets increasingly smaller. While this requires additional effort and planning on our part, the consequence of doing otherwise is too great to ignore, so it is with pride that we place environmental stewardship at the core of our responsibilities as a corporation.”

Currently, Sands China has been undertaking environmentally responsible actions such as refraining from providing single-use plastic items.

Since the beginning of the year, the corporation has discontinued its use of plastic straws at all its properties in an effort to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics.

With more than 29,000 team members and millions of visitors each year, environmental sustainability is extremely important to Sands China. The company now distributes stainless steel straws to all its team members, encouraging them not to use single-use plastics and to bring their own straws with them to work.

In its laundry operation, the company has discontinued the use of plastic bags for guest and team member laundry services.

Corn-based disposable food containers are now in use at all of the company’s food outlets. Made from renewable resources, it gives off low carbon emissions when incinerated, no toxic gases, and is biodegradable when buried.

These moves are just some of several new initiatives to curb the use of single-use plastics at Sands China’s properties.

The enterprise sees that reducing its carbon footprint is a fundamental indicator of its contribution to a cleaner environment and a more sustainable model of doing business.

Addressing food waste is vital to Sands China’s long-term mission to reduce its waste output.  With over 150 restaurants, banquets and team member dining rooms, seemingly small amounts of leftover food and kitchen scraps can add up significantly.

With that in mind, the company promotes a Clean Plate Challenge as one of the many ongoing efforts of the Sands ECO360 global sustainability strategy.

The Clean Plate Challenge has the goal of encouraging team members to reduce food waste and inspiring them to live a sustainable and healthy lifestyle.

This year’s campaign added the message of “eat healthy; eat with no food waste.”

The company highlights that addressing food waste marks a significant step in reducing its waste footprint.

In terms of practicing sustainability in its procurement department, Sands China has responded to its parent company’s call to implement a Sustainable Procurement Policy.

The policy allows the company to seek products that are environmentally preferable, meet internal sustainability criteria and comply with environmental legislation and regulatory requirements.

More than 20% of the company’s spend on operating supplies is on sustainable products, including paper, bed linens, and office and cleaning supplies.

Aligning with the strategy, Sands China also launched myFITNESS, which is aimed at encouraging team members to take on good habits in health, physical fitness and well-being.

Green Mondays and a back-of-house health booth are two of the campaigns of this initiative, which encourage team members to eat a more plant-based diet in support of better health and provide team members with health advice.

The company’s ban on its
use of plastic straws will
have significant impact to
operational sustainability

During Green Mondays, the back-of-house team member dining rooms at all Sands China properties will be serving more vegetables, with a separate vegetarian counter offering six healthy choices, including innovative plant-based meat alternatives such as Omnipork. Encouraging team members to eat less meat is more sustainable for the environment and helps fulfil the company’s social and environmental responsibilities.
With Sands China providing daily meals for over 29,000 team members, their participation in Green Mondays is expected to greatly reduce meat consumption, in turn decreasing carbon dioxide emissions by about 25 tons a day – equaling a 1,300-ton reduction in carbon dioxide over the course of a year.

Sands China also aims to purchase products that are third-party certified by credible eco-labels, incurring an annual spend of more than MOP 46.6 million on sustainable seafood.

Currently, the integrated resort operator offers meat-free dishes at 14 of its signature restaurants, as well as vegetarian and vegan menu offerings for its MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) attendees as part of its Green Meetings program.

Additionally, as part of the company’s commitment to protecting the environment, it has banned shark fin from its internal and external food and beverage operations, including all restaurants owned by the company.

Sands China began making steps toward a complete ban back in 2017, when it removed shark fin from all its menus.

The ban reflects the company’s firm commitment to continually reducing the environmental impact from its operations, hoping to further inspire and encourage the community to actively engage in sustainability efforts.

Moreover, Sands China’s fourth invitational matching session for local SME suppliers featured 10 participating businesses that offer sustainable products and services.

During the recent session, three of the local SME suppliers gave a brief presentation on their companies’ sustainable products and services.

Sands China’s sustainability team then delivered a presentation outlining the company’s sustainability measures and goals.

With the government’s continuous efforts to promote eco-friendly initiatives, including the plastic ban that will commence on Monday, Sands China pledges to continuously pioneer green initiatives, encouraging its team members to practice eco-consciousness through a series of ongoing schemes.