\nHoward Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal <\/p>\n
\tBookmark and Share
\n\tLas Vegas Sands Corp. is unveiling a multimillion-dollar global philanthropic effort today that signifies the gaming company\u2019s presence internationally and aims to address needs in the casino operator\u2019s home communities.<\/p>\n
\tThe initial efforts of the corporate citizenship program, Sands Cares, are twofold.<\/p>\n
\tLas Vegas Sands is contributing $7 million to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration to help fund a new building for the school.<\/p>\n
\tA portion of the donation, which spans five years, will be used to create a global professional and executive education program at the college.<\/p>\n
\tLas Vegas Sands also donated $1 million to Clean the World, an international nonprofit that turns discarded soap and shampoo products into personal hygiene items for use in impoverished countries. The company has been working with Clean the World since 2011 and has diverted 52 tons of waste products into 367,000 bars of recycled soap.<\/p>\n
\tThe $1 million donation was the single-largest ever corporate gift to Clean the World, which was founded in 2009 and is based in Orlando, Fla.<\/p>\n
\tLas Vegas Sands President Michael Leven said the company\u2019s philanthropic efforts have centered around personal contributions made by Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam.<\/p>\n
\tSheldon Adelson, 80, is considered the world\u2019s eighth richest person by Forbes, with a net worth of $39.8 billion. He has donated millions of dollars through the Adelson Family Foundation.<\/p>\n
\tLeven said the creation of Sands Cares allows the focus to be on Las Vegas Sands \u201crather than our chairman.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u2018MUCH BETTER PLACE\u2019<\/p>\n
\tLeven added that the casino company, which owns The Venetian and Palazzo on the Strip and hotel-casinos in Macau, Singapore and Bethlehem, Pa., \u201cis in a much better place financially\u201d than it was five years ago.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe need to take our place globally as a company,\u201d Leven said. \u201cIn my view, we really haven\u2019t been good enough at this type of stuff in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tLeven said the corporate citizenship effort gives Las Vegas Sands global recognition beyond its balance sheet. The company has a gaming industry-leading market capitalization of more than $67 billion.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt speaks to the employees that we have a global perspective,\u201d Leven said. \u201cWe have to take our rightful place. I think we want to be recognized globally in terms of civic responsibility. That goes with the territory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tLas Vegas Sands made smaller donations over the years to charities, and that effort will continue, Leven said. The idea, however, was to create a major gift program.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe wanted to make an impact,\u201d Leven said.<\/p>\n
\tAt UNLV, the hotel college hopes to break ground on a new building in 2015 with an opening in 2017. Stowe Shoemaker, the hotel administration college\u2019s dean, said the Legislature appropriated $30 million toward construction and UNLV is seeking to raise another $20 million.<\/p>\n
\tHe said the Center for International Hospitality and Gaming Education, which is being created through the Las Vegas Sands donation, will provide a modern professional development program that can train future hotel-casino industry executives to work in Las Vegas and worldwide.<\/p>\n
\tShoemaker said 25 percent of the hotel school\u2019s students come from Asia.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThere is a huge need for professional development in the industry,\u201d Shoemaker said. \u201cThis program allows UNLV to create a truly global classroom to educate future executives in the art and science of hospitality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tPROMOTING HYGIENE<\/p>\n
\tClean the World has an office in Las Vegas. Venetian and Palazzo employees volunteer time to build thousands of hygiene kits to be used in homeless shelters and other resource centers in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\tThe company has earmarked 100,000 hygiene kits for disaster relief efforts around the world. Las Vegas Sands employees will travel to international destinations to hand out the kits and provide hygiene education.<\/p>\n
\tLeven said the work with Clean the World will touch people \u201cwho will probably never stay at one of our properties.\u201d But the work might encourage other corporate donations to Clean the World.<\/p>\n
\tClean the World co-founder Shawn Seipler said the donation showed a \u201cwillingness to step beyond the normal product recycling partnership\u201d and \u201ca deep commitment to this cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tLas Vegas Sands made a financial donation to Clean the World last year in 2013 after a typhoon and tsunami struck the Philippines. Leven said company employees of Philippine descent heard about the contribution and thanked management for the effort.<\/p>\n
\tBut the company didn\u2019t want to wait for the next disaster. That was a key reasoning behind Sands Cares.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s easier for companies to respond in emergencies. Write the check and away it goes,\u201d Leven said. \u201cWhat we wanted was a planned program where we don\u2019t have to wait for emergency. We\u2019re going to do this as part of our budget process.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIn 2010, Las Vegas Sands unveiled a companywide sustainable business program that turned the entire 17.9 million-square-foot Venetian, Palazzo and Sands Expo and Convention Center complex into the world\u2019s largest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified building by the U.S. Green Building Council.<\/p>\n
\tBut green efforts, Leven said, come with a financial savings.<\/p>\n
\tA philanthropic endeavor \u201cshows the company is being a good corporate citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Howard Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal Bookmark and Share Las Vegas Sands Corp. is unveiling a multimillion-dollar global philanthropic effort today that signifies the gaming company\u2019s presence internationally and aims to address needs in the casino operator\u2019s home communities. The initial…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}