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Harrah's announces Team Earth partnership
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Apr. 10, 2012 | 9:19 a.m.
Harrah's Entertainment on Monday announced it is joining with four corporations and three environmental organizations as founding members of a partnership focusing on environmental issues.
"Team Earth unites businesses, nonprofit organizations, scientists, educators and engaged citizens in an international effort to focus attention on pressing environmental sustainability issues, inspire collective action and drive innovation towards smarter, greener, more responsible choices," the announcement read.
Harrah's is joining computer company Dell, cleaning product company SC Johnson, Starbucks and the candy-gum company Wrigley as the founding corporations of Team Earth. The companies will work with Conservation International, Rocky Mountain Institute and the Prince of Wales' Rainforest Project in five critical environmental areas: climate change, water, health, waste and food.
The partnership was announced Monday in Manhattan at a press conference attended by Harrah's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary Loveman.
"A key focus of Team Earth is uniting simple, straightforward individual actions to address our planet's most critical environmental issues," Loveman said. "Harrah's Entertainment is proud to join Team Earth not as a single corporate sponsor, but as 80,000 employees working together to make a difference."
The group's first project is to lobby for forest protection at the Copenhagen climate negotiations in December.
Harrah's has established employee teams at its casinos and in all corporate activities to create, promote, measure and sustain effective environmental practices.
According to Harrah's, there have been more than 100 major conservation projects across its properties, from installing energy-efficient indoor and outdoor lighting to reducing water consumption by hundreds of millions of gallons every year.
In the past six years, the company has spent $60 million on energy conservation projects alone, averting more than 230 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually, which is equivalent to planting 88,000 acres of forest or eliminating 12 million passenger car miles.
"By uniting our efforts, we have significantly reduced our company's carbon footprint, dramatically improved our energy efficiency, decreased our waste stream and increased our recycling," Loveman said. "Joining together, we have made Harrah's a sustainability leader and now we are ready to do more by joining an even bigger team: Team Earth."
Harrah's is the only major casino company to join the Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders and Waste Wise programs, and the only company in the industry to win an EPA Environmental Quality Award.
Contact reporter Arnold M. Knightly at aknightly@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893.
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Gary Loveman:
A question for you: "Do you know where Harrah's disposed their illegally removed ASBESTOS? I am talking specifically about the ASBESTOS that made it out of the hotels...not the airborne ASBESTOS which contaminated your VALUED guests, employees & construction workers!
The problem with asbestos arises when the fibers become airborne and are inhaled. Because of the size of the fibers, the lungs cannot expel them.[2] They are also sharp and penetrate tissues.
Health problems attributed to asbestos include[3]
Asbestosis - A lung disease first found in textile workers[4][5][6], asbestosis is a scarring of the lung tissue from an acid produced by the body's attempt to dissolve the fibers. The scarring may eventually become so severe that the lungs can no longer function. The latency period (meaning the time it takes for the disease to develop) is often 10–20 years.
Mesothelioma - A cancer of the mesothelial lining of the lungs and the chest cavity, the peritoneum (abdominal cavity) or the pericardium (a sac surrounding the heart). Unlike lung cancer, mesothelioma has no association with smoking.[7] The only established causal factor is exposure to asbestos or similar fibers[8]. The latency period for mesothelioma may be 20–50 years. The prognosis for mesothelioma is grim, with most patients dying within 12 months of diagnosis.
Cancer - Cancer of the lung, gastrointestinal tract, kidney and larynx have been linked to asbestos. The latency period for cancer is often 15–30 years. [9]
Diffuse pleural thickening [9]
Gary, are you proud of yourself now - what a potentially special gift you have bestowed upon us...
At the Flamingo Hotel the route used for disposing the asbestos passed right outside the employees dining room...in bags that were covered in asbestos dust and in many cases compromised - you know with holes in them to disperse the asbestos dust into the air!
Harrah's could lead through example by installing solar panels across the many acres of flat rooftop surface on all its resorts. The rooftop of just Paris' convention buildings alone must be 3-4 acres of wasted space that are exposed to the sun most of the day for over 300 days a year.
How about Gary giving some of his green back to his workers instead of his corporate cronies!!
Fred, while we appreciate your postings, this one is just wrong!
Gary Loveman has not, does not, nor will not ever care about anyone working within his hemisphere!
We still believe your validated claims, but please do not expect Loveman to concede any wrong-doing!
3 years ago we asked HEI to install plastic bottle recycling bins in the casinos.
Now, when the heat of mis-appropriation/ponzi are on their heels the "go green"?
GET REAL, MF HEI! You cannot divert attention that easily!
Where's the news flash about Harrah's paying back their loans?
Oh yea there isn't one!!
Have they stopped paying off government officials yet trying to get news laws that protect them? With money they don't have on top of that!!!
Great country here people..... Yea!
Gary Loveman:
Are you feeling a little guilty for having exposed countless construction workers, employees and Guests of your Hotels to ASBESTOS, a known carcinogenic during the course of your many illegal remodels, which are now documented by the Clark County Fire Department and the Clark County Building Department? My bad, one would have to actually have ethics coupled with a conscience to actually care about other human beings, and unfortunately it seems that you have neither!
You can only make amends for what you & Harrah's Entertainment Inc. have done by doing the right thing and make things right with all those that were affected by you illegal willful acts, which put millions of people at risk over the course of time. Gary, you left thousands of your hotel rooms unsafe for the public to stay in due to your illegal remodel projects, which date back to the early 1990's. If there would have been a fire (thank God that there wasn't), we would have had another MGM Grand disaster...Harrah's is such a pillar of the community.
Gary, here is a fine example of what Harrah's did willfully to a couple of Roman Empire Construction workers at Caesar's, and please keep in mind this is after two OSHA investigations which involved the Flamingo & Harrah's Hotels:
Two workers were given the task to scrape the asbestos laden popcorn ceilings at Caesar's, this is called abatement - they were given no training, no protection other than a cheap paper mask and a water hose. They worked like this for three months, and at that time they were given additional protective equipment, but still no training...training which is required by law.
Gary, be a man, find your balls and the gumption to stand up and make amends with all those that have been harmed...