Las Vegas is one of my least favorite places on the planet. To me, it’s always seemed like a tremendous waste of resources; everything I don’t like about big cities wrapped up into one sprawling, air-conditioned package.
But now it looks like the city might be going on a serious greening-spree.
Treehugger’s got the dirt on MGM’s CityCenter, a new 76-acre development on the Vegas Strip that aims to be the largest structure in the United States to receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.
There’s a lot I like about this - the fact that the builders are doing it without knowing exactly how much money they’ll save on energy, but knowing that the quality of life will improve; the building’s re-use of old materials from all over the world; the fact that they’re basically tearing down a giant section of Vegas to try to fix it … but most of all the hope that it will inspire other developers in the resource-hungry West to follow suit.
It’ll be three years before the mini-city opens, and I’d be totally down with going to check it out. Except, you know, I’d still be in Vegas.
Check out the development’s site here.
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I’ve been told there’s great hiking in the hills near Vegas.
That is true. The few times I’ve been in Vegas, it’s been for work or visiting non-hiking friends, so I haven’t ever been able to actually get outside the city borders … but the mountains surrounding the city did look beautiful.
I don’t think one “green” project will make any difference in the non-greenness and insanity of Las Vegas.