The U.S. Green Building Council, or easily known as the USGBC, officially announced in 2008 that The Palazzo Las Vegas is the largest green building in the world. The Palazzo is a green complex created for the benefit of the environment, as well as for the benefit of all citizens of Las Vegas. The building was provided with a LEED certificate, as in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which means the building respects nature standards for preserving energy methods, recycling and preserving the water supplies. It is said that

The Palazzo employs such effective environmentally-efficient technologies that it conserves enough water to provide each citizen of Nevada with 266 eight-ounce glasses of water for a year, as well as saving enough energy to light 100 watt light bulb for 12,100 years.” It even promotes alternative transportation methods by offering a funny and ingenious valet parking for bicycles. How green is that?

Some of the features The Palazzo provides are the swimming pools which are totally heated with an expansive solar pool heating system. The system is so intelligent, that during hot summer days, the excess amount of solar energy provided by the panel is directed to the central water heating system of the hotel, helping to reduce costs a lot. Other energy effective measures imply the air conditioning system which is controlled to a higher temperature when guests are not present, so that when they come back they can manually set the desired temperature. So, under these circumstances, The Palazzo Las Vegas is by far the greenest building in whole Nevada state.

However, I’m sure you’re fund with the well-known phrase “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”. Still, this is not sustainable for people of Nevada state who want to be recognized as a green state which offers many alternative solutions to overheating, massive energy consumption and many others. So, beside the already mentioned Palazzo which seems to be in front of any other green building across the States, there are also some other buildings worth mentioning, you’ve guessed, in Las Vegas!

Other LEED-designed projects include CityCenter – The Future of Urban Living as they say. The Building is a 76-acred city-within-city concept designed with green technologies to make it one of the world’s largest environmentally sustainable urban communities. It includes shops, commercial areas and many others more that, under the regular level of pollution within the city, it totally looks like a green and fresh escapade.

The Echelon Place cost around 4.4 billion dollars and is a mixed-use space on the Las Vegas Strip. Still, due to massive costs and other problems, construction was temporally suspended.

Another building worth mentioning is the Uniun Park, which is a 61-acre development by the City of Las Vegas, also being the first project to be accepted as part of the U.S Green Building Council. It includes a world jeweler center, the “Keep Memory Alive” Foundation and many others more.

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