Inside the C-Suite of MGM Resorts International

This week on C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett I took you inside MGM Resorts International, a $15 billion company focusing on sustainability, diversity, and philanthropy in a city of excess. If you missed the full episode, check it out here.

I went to Las Vegas, the city of sin, to go into the c-suite of MGM Resorts International. In a city where the advertising slogan is “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” why would a very successful $15 billion company all the sudden say that they’re now going to focus around a moral compass. They’re going to talk in terms of sustainability, diversity, and even add philanthropy as one of their main stays of values that they’re going to now pursue. Why?

This is a company servicing a population coming to play and do a little business under the cloak of the Vegas promise, which we know is a little bit of flash and a wee bit of naughtiness.  It’s neon lights, flash, success – it’s a place where they build real glass pyramids and fake Eiffel towers and replicas of New York City – when you already have the real thing!

They’re in the middle of the desert, isolated, in a city where they can say “It’s Vegas, baby,” and everyone would go along with it. Instead, they’re becoming the leader in doing what’s right.

If you peek behind the façade and the lights, there is a real city with real people who want great jobs, a good place to live, and a future. MGM recognized that desire for a better life, and they’re doing something about it. Over the past five years, MGM Resorts has saved more than 300 million kilowatt hours of electricity, 1.9 billion gallons of water, and improved their recycling rate to 37.9%. They’re taking corporate responsibility to a whole new level and there’s no doubt that it’s paying off.

What I found when I went to talk to the c-suite of MGM was that the talk about kilowatt savings, water usage saved, waste recycling isn’t all just neon lights to bring you in like a switch and bait. It’s authentic, and more importantly it works. By being green, they’re getting green. MGM is showing other corporations that in a city of excess they can be a company that shows how to conserve and take care of the environment, take care of their people, and give back to their community.