Impact Leadership In Vegas (VenuesNow Conference Recap)

Words matter, and day 1 of VenuesNow Conference in Las Vegas, with much of the day focused on sustainability, made a theme about using the right words to make an impact – without politicizing the topic.

“I would argue that sustainability is key, but I would position it as ‘resilience’ and ‘future proofing,’” said Rich Sloan, CEO of WAVR Technologies, based in Las Vegas. “I think these are things we just put in the ‘future’ category, and making sure we get there and making sure nothing holds us back as we grow from 3 million to 4 million as a population here as we try to be shepherds of our resources that are clearly constrained.”

WAVR Technologies is a Las Vegas-based UNLV startup that develops atmospheric water harvesting systems that extra water directly from the air, creating a valued resource in a desert environment that would otherwise evaporate. The technology is not new but is being used in a big way to help produce a renewable source of water in a city that is growing at a rapid clip but lacks for natural water sources in a desert environment.

“Formula One globally has very aggressive net zero by 2030 sustainability goals, and as we grow and mature here in Las Vegas, we are finding ways that ladder up to those goals,” said Jeremy Walters, Community Engagement Director for Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, which debuted in the city in November 2023, requiring heavy construction along the Strip and becoming a landmark event. The race will take place annually through at least 2027.

Efforts to achieve net zero water usage include atmospheric water generation, in partnership with MGM among others. Despite the difficulty of running such a contraption in the desert, the system is yielding impressive results.

“There’s a massive fan that’s actually extracting this highly humid air and running it through the evaporative cooling system of the atmospheric water generator, and it is producing clean potable water after it goes through several stages of filtration,” added Walters. With a lot of the race’s water usage already being reclaimed — 90 to 95 percent of the water used for track-washing is recycled — Walters says the atmospheric water generation can go a long way toward F1’s sustainability goals. “I’ll have some better data towards the end of the year, but our goal is to ultimately work towards making our Grand Prix Las Vegas zero consumptive water use facility on an annual basis.”

As other VenuesNow Conference sessions emphasized on Tuesday, notably with AJR musician Adam Met’s sustainability-focused opening session, social engagement and fan participation is important in achieving sustainability goals, but more than just training patrons to follow directions and aid in manual tasks like waste sorting, taking ownership of the environment — or team, or venue — can go a long way. The city got to take ownership of – and pride in – its first major league expansion team with the formation of the NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights, who debuted in 2017 and won a Stanley Cup championship in 2023.

“There’s definitely an underdog mentality of when you tell people you live in Vegas, or if you’re from Vegas, that there’s more than meets the eye than just what happens on the Strip,” says Eric Tosi, the team’s chief marketing officer. “What we found at the Knights is that underdog mentality also played well into the first season that we had, and that nobody expected the team on the ice to be any good. Nobody expected the city to be able to support major professional sports, never mind ice hockey. And so we really created this extremely special bond between the community and the city. So as we’ve continually tried, one of our core principles right from the start is being embedded in the community and representing the city with pride. And I think for us to continue to innovate and inspire and engage with the community in a way that was meaningful is something that has been instilled in us from day one and continues as we head into our, our ninth season.”

The team has implemented the Knight SHIELD, a sizeable acronym outlining the team’s goals. It stands for Sustainability, Healthy air quality, to Improve and Inspire, Landfill diversion and Decreasing water usage.

“By providing this structure and providing this brand, it’s really given the organization something to drive strategy and to drive more impact in the sustainability space here in town with the overall objective of improving our city, and then inspiring others to get on board, with our PR, fans or corporate partners,” Tosi said.