Harrah's Entertainment has been hard at work implementing energy conservation measures that consistently support the goals of the Energy Master Plan. Their unique approach, replicability, wide-scale deployment, job creation and dedication to outreach and education serve as a model for others in the business community. In addition to installed measures reducing energy consumption, they have converted to environmentally friendly air conditioning refrigerants, bio-renewable cleaning products, food and oil reuse, an aggressive recycling campaign especially associated with cardboard collection and disposal, water conservation by moving to waterless urinals, hybrid vehicles, composting, Styrofoam removal from the use stream, and much more. Accepting the award, from left to right, Robert Hersh, Bristol-Meyers Squibb (last year’s award-winner), James Ziereis, Matthew Schupbach, Daniel Redelheim, Eric Dominguez, BPU Commissioner Joseph Fiordaliso, Walter Clark, Judy Sereni, Jessica Hall, Ike DeNafo, Ruth Cordery, Ed Maier, BPU Commissioner Elizabeth Randall, Peter Abbondanza, BPU President Jeanne Fox, BPU Commissioner Nicholas Asselta

Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. is the world’s largest provider of branded casino entertainment through its operating subsidiaries. Its four resorts within the state of New Jersey encompass 6.5 million square feet of hotel, casino, and entertainment space, including over 6,800 hotel rooms.

To become a steward of the environment by making immediate changes, fully engaging employees in the clean energy effort and integrating long-term, environmentally friendly solutions.

Harrah’s Entertainment has taken a focused and comprehensive approach to improving its energy efficiency and safeguarding the environment, involving their nearly 12,000 Atlantic City employees and more than 1.7 million customers in company-wide “Code Green” initiatives. Some of these large-scale programs and improvements include:

• conversion of incandescent lighting to fluorescent lighting
• installation of Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) and Direct Digital Controls (DDC)
• upgrade of hotel room thermostats
• installation of a high-efficiency steam turbine that generates electricity as a byproduct of the normal steam production at one facility
• conversion of refrigerants from R-12 to 414B
• replacement of harsh cleaning chemicals with bio-renewal/green products
• reuse of food and kitchen oil wastes by supplying these products to a local pig farm
• aggressive recycling and reduction of cardboard and paper
• waterless urinals
• the use of hybrid vehicles


The environmental benefits of these “Code Green” initiatives at Harrah’s Entertainment are impressive. Altogether, the company’s four Atlantic City resorts have reduced their electrical usage by 56,264,917 kWh and their natural gas use by 1,097,999 therms annually. And, most significant of all, Harrah’s Entertainment has prevented 115,409,790 pounds of CO2 each year. This is all in additional to eliminating wastes across-the-board, including 51,720 gallons of food/oil, 734 tons of cardboard and 1.1 million Styrofoam cups.

The NJ Board of Public Utilities congratulates Harrah’s Entertainment, winner of the 2009 NJ Clean Energy Business Leader of the Year Leadership Award.