“Green Initiatives and Sustainability” Forum
Sponsored by the Macao Polytechnic Institute, supported by the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government, hosted by the Galaxy Entertainment Group, The Forum on "Macau Integrated Tourism and Leisure Enterprises and Social Responsibility" has been successfully held at 2 p.m. on 2 December 2016 at Venetian Macao. This latest forum in the series featured the theme of "Green Initiatives and Sustainability". Participating organizations that also delivered speeches at the Forum included (in the order of their presentations) Sands China Limited, MGM, Galaxy Entertainment Group, Wynn Macau Limited, Melco Crown Entertainment, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau S.A., Macau Federation of Trade Unions and Macao Polytechnic Institute. The objective of this Forum series is to showcase and further promote corporate social responsibility commitments among local corporate operators of integrated tourism and leisure resorts. It aims to provide the whole industry, local residents and visitors to Macao with a comprehensive understanding of these corporations' commitments and contributions in promoting environmental protection and energy conservation.
The opening ceremony of the Forum was officiated by Mr Yao Jian, Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region, representative of the hosting organization Mr. Chum Kwan Lock, Chief of Staff of Sands China Ltd and Dr. Cheang Mio Han, Director of the Gaming Teaching and Research Center of the Macao Polytechnic Institute. Mr. Kou Ming, Sub-Director of Economic Affairs Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region, Ms. Chan Ioc Sut, representative of Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, Ms. Sabina Ieong, representative of Environmental Protection Bureau. Other guests and representatives from participating organizations also attended the opening ceremony, including Ms. Ho Sut Heng, President of the Macao Federation of Trade Unions; Ms. Linda Chen, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of Wynn Macau Ltd.; Mr. Grant Bowie, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of MGM China Holdings Ltd.; Dr. Kent Wong, Senior Advisor of Melco Crown Entertainment; Dr Paul Hung, Assistant Chief Operating Officer of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau S.A. (in alphabetical order of their company name).
Macao's integrated tourism and leisure enterprises have made positive contributions to support environmental protection initiatives and promote sustainable development that are oriented towards the strategic goal of building Macao into a world center of tourism and leisure as well as a cosmopolitan city that is also comfortable to live in. Macao's booming tourism and leisure industry has attracted an increasing number of tourists, whose consumption has in turn greatly boosted its economic growth. Local integrated tourism and leisure enterprises are actively introducing state-of-the-art environmental management, energy saving, sustainable development of science and technology and management concepts, and promoting green building, green procurement, recycling and other measures to improve the energy efficiency and operational efficiency, while at the same time offering visitors and guests a more pleasant and environment-friendly recreation environment. They have also long committed to instructing their own staff and employees, their business partners and local communities the significance of environmental protection and energy conservation and concepts of sustainable development, sparing no efforts to engage all stakeholders in environmental protection.
In perspective, besides possessing state-of-the-art facilities, many properties of these local integrated tourism and leisure enterprises have won numerous awards with their environmental management. During the Forum, representatives of key gaming operators have introduced to the audience their unique and distinctive projects that capitalized on modern environmental technology innovations. Some of these projects are listed below (in the order of their speeches):
Sands China Limited
The Sands Group's 360 degree global sustainable development initiatives cover more than 100 energy-saving projects and over 200 green projects that are still on-going, including such projects as "Green Building", "Green Operation", "Stakeholder Engagement" and "Green Conference" etcetera, with a total investment of over 500m MOP. The Company has implemented various energy-saving measures and installed innovative technologies for sorting kitchen leftovers and building materials. In so doing, it has been able to save a total of 4,600m kilowatt hours of electricity and 90m gallons of water just last year, boosting its waste recycling rate from 2% in 2012 to 13% as of last year. Meanwhile, The Company has successfully convinced eight sorts of stakeholders to participate in its 200 sustainable development activities and about 300,000 environmental actions and commitments. Sands China has won numerous awards for its environmental protection achievements. It is Macao’s first organization to have received the ISO 20121 Sustainability Management System certification, with five of its subsidiary hotels having won the gold medal of ‘Green Hotels in Macao’, ranking in the 62th place among the 500 Global Green Companies by Newsweek. The Company has also made its foray into the database of the Carbon Footprint Repository for Listed Companies in Hong Kong. Looking ahead, the Group sets out to establish a list of sustainable food categories, and will pro-actively explore the use of garbage power generation and new energies.
MGM
Sustainable development not only represents MGM's corporate core values but also constitutes its global commitment. Under the leadership of the company's management, an ad hoc sustainable development department was established to formulate relevant policies and management systems, to execute related measures of green building and procurement, and by adopting eSight energy performance Table as well as SkySpark operation monitoring and diagnosis systems to reduce energy consumption and improve resource efficiency of operations. Internally, a cross-departmental Green Coordinating Team was established to promote environmental protection and energy conservation among staff members. Externally, great efforts are being made via lectures and seminars, donation and sponsorship activities to educate students and the young generation on the urgent need for environmental protection and all stakeholders are encouraged to participate. The Company has been awarded the ASHRAE’s Asia-Pacific Science and Technology Achievement Award and the ISO 50001 energy management system certification. Starting in 2016, MGM China (Stock Code: 2282) has been enlisted in the Hang Seng Sustainability Composite Index Series. The upcoming MGM Cotai project has been awarded a 2-star China Green Building (Macau) Design Certificate by the China Green Building and Energy Conservation (Macau) Association. It is the largest and the first private construction project to have received this prestigious award.
Melco Crown Entertainment
Melco Crown Entertainment is one of the few companies in Macao that has established an Environmental Management Committee to provide guidance to its overall environmental direction and initiatives. The Company has invested more than 100m MOP in its green infrastructures. Among these, the water filtration system for the House of Dancing Water, the reclaimed water treatment system for Altira, the rainwater collection system, and so on, are all adopting state-of-the-art technologies to ensure high-quality water treatment, with the ultimate goal of conserving water resources. Melco Crown Entertainment has achieved remarkable results in its environment protection initiatives. The Company is Macao’s first resort hotel to have obtained the ISO 14001: 2004 environmental management certification and the Interior Environmental Quality certification, the Environmental Performance Excellence Award for Macao Business Awards 2014, and the Best Environmental Protection Award by Asian Corporate Governance Magazine for three consecutive years between 2013 and 2015. Its ‘City of Dreams’ is the first hotel and integrated entertainment resort in Macau to have received the ISO 14064 Greenhouse Gas Management System certification. All its three subsidiary hotels have won the Gold Award of the 2015Macau Eco-friendly Hotels.
Wynn Macau Limited
Wynn has long been committed to supporting environmental protection, sparing no efforts to protect our environment. Wynn's environmental protection team was founded in 2009, comprised of the Company’s senior management and under their leadership, all heads of major operating departments. It is Wynn's strong conviction that the responsibility of protecting the environment lies in everybody and that the ultimate goal of the environmental protection team should be to safeguard the earth by taking practical actions. Wynn is steadfastly committed to its 6R philosophy (i.e."Reduce ", "Reuse ", "Recycle", "Replace", "Redefine" and "Re-think") and principles in all environmental management systems. At the same time, Wynn is one of Macao's earliest batch of the integrated resorts to have established food testing laboratories, formulated strict food hygiene and safety guidelines and imposed ten requirements on food suppliers to ensure the quality of food sources. The Company is committed to continually assessing the environmental data and relevant policies, strengthening its green initiatives, in an effort to strike a balance between corporate responsibilities, environmental management and community involvement.
Galaxy
Galaxy Entertainment Group adheres to the principle of sustainable development in environmental protection by pursuing four objectives: "Promoting decent conservation behaviors", "Raising awareness and corporate culture of energy and water conservation", "Maintaining a healthy and safe workplace and environmental protection" and "Reducing waste produced from the workplace”, with a view to effectively integrating environmental protection with business operations, thus achieving management efficiency and energy-saving efficiency via technological advancement and innovation. The Company is also promoting these ideas among its team members via multiple channels on a regular basis to encourage everyone to raise their awareness and culture of energy-saving in their daily lives, amd provide solutions to its retail clients and business partners for energy-saving and environmental protection. In the field of environmental management, the Company has established close partnerships with the SAR Government and the industry to explore most innovative technologies and methods for the 4Rs, i.e., ‘Replace, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’. Galaxy has won recognition and many awards for its achievements in environmental protection, including Macao’s first gaming enterprise to have won the LEED Gold Certification issued by the US Green Building Rating System, the ISO Environment certification of the British Standards Association, the OHSAS Safety Management System and the Integrated System Certification etc. The Company has achieved splendid results in many local competitions in Macao as well.
SJM
SJM has actively applied environment-friendly technologies in its construction and business management to enhance its energy efficiency, thus improving the economic efficiency of operations, and provides a better recreational environment for its guests. SJO regularly overhauls the environmental protection measures of its subsidiary properties against the industry’s most rigorous benchmarks, monitors closely the impact of its operations on the local communities and the environment, going all out to ensure sustainable development. SJM frequently promotes corporate social responsibility to its employees, business partners and suppliers, with a view to achieving operational efficiency and environmental sustainability simultaneously. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design LEED certification is a green building rating system established in 2000 by the Green Building Council, a non-profit organization in the United States to assess whether building performance is consistent with the principles of sustainable development. In this regards, it is conceivable that the Lisboa Project to be completed in 2017 will strive for its Silver-level certification. The green building features of the Lisboa Project will cover energy conservation measures such as heat supply, lighting, room temperature control and water use, as well as other energy-saving and environmental protection equipments that are used in landscaping and heat insulation.
The Macao Federation of Trade Unions provided a historical review of changes in Macao's social, economic and environmental indexes since the Handover. Following this, it pointed out that the key to promote environmental protection and energy conservation is to mobilize resources from corporate social responsibility, government policy, corporate decision-making, financial support, technology upgrading and human resources development. Given the enormous workforce in these integrated tourism and leisure enterprises, their social impacts are considerably huge. In this sense, if all integrated tourism and leisure enterprises are taking the lead to enhance environmental protection technologies, these efforts on their part will certainly encourage their own staff to pursue self-improvement, which will eventually help boost Macao's overall competitiveness globally.
The Macau Polytechnic Institute summarized the forum and also introduced its own initiatives to promote environmental protection among its students and faculty staff. These activities have included the Green Low-Carbon Diet, various mountaineering and hiking activities, Green Collar Programs for Undergraduates, World Earth Day activity series, World Environment Day "Green Beach Activities" and "Care for the Oceans" International Clean Beach Day Action, Environmental Health Show, Little Green Canteen, and Tree-Climbing expeditions etc.
