While Sin City is famous for bright lights, the clanking of coins in casinos and being an adult’s paradise — the M Resort is gambling on energy efficiency without sacrificing the comfort level of its guests.

Though the standard in the Vegas accommodations scene is for hotels to provide an oasis of drinks and a comfortable temperature in the desert for their guests, The M Resort is doing just that and more. Participating in the utility demand response program, this hotel and casino is improving their energy efficiency.

Being a green role model on the strip

Since opening their doors in 2009, the newest edition to the Vegas skyline set out to be greener than the average hotel and casino on the strip from the start.

Along with making it as a Forbes Travel Guide Four Star resort three years in a row (2010-2012), The M Resort Spa Casino has been recognized for sustainability efforts. Unlike most casinos, The M Resort has designed their building to accommodate natural light. While some hotels are big into reflective glass, these folks opted for skylights and made great use of daylighting offered by the desert sun.

Since the beginning, The M Resort has set sustainability initiatives and has been open with their commitment to the environment. The entire hotel is made out of double-glazed tinted glass with low-e coating in efforts to cut their heating and cooling costs.

Even the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority commend The M Resorts efforts in regards to their water efficient plumbing fixtures, their property-wide recycling systems and their energy efficient lighting fixtures.

Now, they’re going all in with energy savings

When Las Vegas NV Energy teamed up with BuildingIQ with a cloud-based software to offer large commercial customers (and huge energy users), the M Resort received key points of efficiency and comfort well, according to Greentech Media.

“BuildingIQ’s algorithm fine-tunes commercial air conditioning to save customers about 10 per cent to 18 per cent on baseline HVAC use without anyone noticing the difference,” reports Greentech Media.

While the program is still in the pilot phase, during the first year’s demand response days, the participants experienced a HVAC drop of 12-20 per cent.

It seems that energy efficiency programs in the accommodations scene is starting to pick up — which is really a sweet trend worth gambling on.  Though most hotels in Vegas aren’t quite ready to play high risk when it comes to sacrificing electrical load — hopefully, by the time the demand response program moves out of its pilot phase, there will be more players at the table.

For businesses interested in an awesome Energy Audit, check this out.

 

Image credit: The M Resort