The Las Vegas meeting complex that includes Sands Expo and the Congress Center at The Venetian and The Palazzo Las Vegas is the first venue in the world to achieve the advanced “Level Two” industry certification for environmentally sustainable meetings, events, trade shows and conferences.
The Level Two Certification to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standard is a designation of the meeting industry’s comprehensive standards for environmentally sustainable meetings, created through a partnership of the Convention Industry Council’s (CIC) Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) initiative and ASTM International.
“Currently, there are only four venues in the world that are even certified at Level One,” says John Caparella, president and chief operating officer of The Venetian, The Palazzo and Sands Expo. “We are beyond thrilled to be a leader in the industry in being the first venue to become certified at Level Two.”
The venue standard is one of nine APEX/ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Meeting Standards introduced in 2012 by the CIC. Its purpose is to provide planners and suppliers with consistent specifications for producing events in a more sustainable manner.
Green meetings sustainability efforts at Sands Expo and The Venetian and The Palazzo were initially launched in 2011 with the Sands ECO 360 Meetings Program.
In addition to this endorsement, previous sustainability certifications earned include LEED Gold Certification for Existing Buildings (The Venetian and Sands Expo), LEED Silver Certification for New Construction (The Palazzo), and TripAdvisor GreenLeader Gold Certification (The Venetian and The Palazzo).
The APEX/ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Meeting Standards are the industry’s comprehensive standards for environmentally sustainable meetings, and are composed of nine separate sectors that address the scope of the meeting and event planning process. Spearheaded by the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) and its relationship with the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), the standards were created through a partnership of the CIC’s APEX initiative and ASTM International, a leader in the development and delivery of international voluntary consensus standards.
The Convention Industry Council’s 31 member organizations represent over 103,500 individuals and 19,500 firms and properties involved in the meetings, conventions, and exhibitions industry.
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