LAS VEGAS - The city of lights and glitz is going green and could soon be home to the world's largest concentration of environmentally friendly hotel rooms.
Although it may be the last place you'd expect to find people trying to save the planet, Las Vegas has been hit by green zeal, says U.S. Green Building Council's spokesperson Ashely Katz.
A total of 15 major new building projects in Sin City - including MGM Mirage's new 4,000-room CityCenter set to open in 2009 - are seeking the building council's stringent Leadership in Environment and Energy Design (LEED) Certification.
"When you are building a large-scale hotel, the long-term benefits and savings that go along with building green are huge," says Katz.
Add the tax breaks from the state of Nevada that could put as much as three times the extra cost of constructing environmentally friendly buildings back into developers' pockets and the odds are stacked in favour of going green.
The luxurious 3,000-room Palazzo, which opened in January, is seeking LEED certification, but until guests step into the shower in the palatial marble-appointed bathrooms, they're unlikely to realize they're staying in a "green" hotel.
The low-flow, eco-shower heads may meet LEED certification requirements, but they don't offer guests a pulsating massage to wash away the strain of being hunched over a gaming table. The water never really gets hot enough to steam up the glass and the low-flow taps on the vanity don't provide enough pressure to rinse a toothbrush.
The mystery of Palazzo's plumbing is explained in the information package on the coffee table. Buried in pages of information about gaming, dining and shows was one paragraph about the hotel seeking LEED certification.
There are compact fluorescent lights in all the fixtures and the wall of what appeared to be Low E-glass windows lets in a lot of natural light - one of the requirements of LEED certification.
The super-insulation of the glass and the walls also gives you something not often found in Las Vegas: almost complete silence.
Full Story: http://www.thestar.com/Travel/article/356799