Caesars Entertainment is driven by its commitment to be a good corporate citizen in the communities in which it operates. With a mission to "inspire grown-ups to play," Caesars supports the well being of its employees and guests, and builds resilience for local communities and the natural environment. Based on internal research, we know there is clear correlation between a strong employee culture and providing top-notch guest satisfaction; employee engagement is the backbone to our success. Therefore, we engage employees in many ways, including fostering open dialogue and investing in policies and programs that make us a great, diverse and inclusive place to work.
One such program is the annual CodeGreen Challenge, which took place March 17 – May 1 to overlap with Earth Month. The CodeGreen Challenge is intended to raise awareness of Caesars' environmental strategy among employees and guests by creating opportunities for active participation and engagement. Participating properties or regions compete for Total Reward (TR) Credits, which are awarded based on both quantitative and qualitative scales.
The specific goals for the 2016 CodeGreen Challenge were to:
- Increase guest awareness of Caesars' commitment to environmental sustainability by a minimum of 3%
- Support long-time partner National Park Trust on its effort to educate people on Nature Deficit Disorder
- Increase followers of @citizencaesars
- Actively engage employees in a spirited competition around CodeGreen
The overall CodeGreen Challenge strategy is to engage employees and guests around Caesars' award-winning CodeGreen environmental program through a company-wide competition. The CodeGreen Challenge is designed to educate employees on various issues, inspire them to take on new, more sustainable behaviors at work and at home, and to create a sense of optimism and empowerment around their individual ability to contribute to something positive. 2016 was the 6th year for the competition, and 12 regions chose to submit entries.
The CodeGreen Challenge kicked off on March 17th with World Wildlife's annual Earth Hour. Caesars participated in Earth Hour for the 7th consecutive year. In the six weeks following Earth Hour, Caesars' properties across the country executed an amazing array of activities, all designed to build awareness of Caesars' commitment to global conservation.
Three strategic aspects of the CodeGreen Challenge make it stand out as unique. One, it is designed to be a behavior change program first, and a marketing opportunity second; the expectation is for experiential learning that has a lasting effect. The second unique feature of the CodeGreen Challenge is its link to long-time partner National Park Trust and its commitment to educate around Nature Deficit Disorder, which is a societal concern that humans, and especially children, are spending too much time indoors. And the third is the rigor with which the program is operated, which is both qualitative (each qualitative category will be scored based on merit in activity on a scale from 1-25 for a maximum of 100 points) and quantitative (each category will receive x number of points for each time an action is completed).
Properties were provided a range of activities for which they would earn points, including:
- creating on-site educational micro-engagement opportunities to gamify health and learning issues caused by nature deficit disorder
- participating in EarthHour, an annual commitment across Caesars' properties to eliminate electric lights for a designated hour as a symbol of recognition of Earth's limited resources
- creating a CodeGreen guest experience on property
- securing earned media coverage for a CodeGreen related initiative
- contributing to the local community through an environmental effort such as a beach or high way clean up
Key to the program was that employees earned individual points (TR Credits) for using #codegreenatwork to highlight the on-property activity. The specific hashtag #codegreenatwork was used in order to distinguish promotion by an employee, versus the more familiar #codegreen, which guests and the Citizenship communication team use throughout the year.
Some of the activities the winning properties participated in included:
- Harrah's Ak-Chin: Adopt-A-Highway trash clean up, participation in a Recycled Fashion Show and Recycling Relay Race, hosting an Electronic and Clothing Event, creating a CodeGreen Mural, and planting an employee garden.
- Harrah's Resort Southern California: biking on a Save-the-Planet ride, Buccanear beach clean-up, putting a green spin on casino games, and a "Be Water Wise Lunch and Learn" where 776 members learned how to save water.
- Various Las Vegas properties: opening an employee garden adorned with recycled recover from waste streams; crafting an organic CodeGreen cocktail sourced from local farmers and serving the drink in restaurants such as Giada, creating an environmental sculpture made from 10,000+ recycled corks that was unveiled at Bon Appetit's Uncork'd event, and creating a special Earth Month dining menu.
In total there were 105 employee hosted events.
We exceeded our measureable goals for the CodeGreen Challenge:
Increase guest awareness of Caesars' commitment to environmental sustainability
- A 4.2 increase in guest awareness of CodeGreen
Increase followers of @citizencaesars
- A 425% increase in engagement on @citizencaesars with the use of #codegreenatwork. Specifically the hashtag was used 129 times, an increase of 130% in use during the competition.
Due to employee efforts and outreach there was a total of 33 media stories about the 2016 CodeGreen challenge.
Overall the sixth annual CodeGreen Challenge was a great success in terms of employee engagement, education around nature deficit disorder, use of #codegreenatwork, and guest engagement.
