MGM National Harbor is the first LEED gold certified casino in the DMV

MGM National Harbor takes up a whopping 28 acres of land in Prince George's County. And if you've ever been to the casino, you know it is immaculately designed and decorated. But you might not know, it's done with the environment top of mind. 

As soon as you walk into the hotel you're greeted by a sign of the environment...dirt. A piece of art that hangs above the check-in desk is actually made from the clay foundation of where the casino stands. So right off the bat you get the idea, the environment matters to MGM.

"We take pride in the fact that we reduce our carbon emissions footprint between 40 and 45 percent," says Bruce Williams, the facilities director at MGM National Harbor.

Williams knows all of the ins and outs of what visitors see at the casino, and what's kept underground, including a 700,000-gallon water storage facility that recaptures, recycles and cleans rainwater for bathrooms and their irrigation system. The resort also reduces its water consumption by more than 45% by utilizing features like automatic faucets, low-flow toilets and shower fixtures.

MGM National Harbor also generates electricity through the use of cogeneration - a system that provides water from the waste heat produced by a natural gas generation.

"We recapture exhaust, scrub it, clean it, lower our footprint by 30% for emissions...recycle that," Williams said. "We're one of the very few on the east coast that actually have this...it's one of the best, newest, latest and greatest."

And as technology evolves, so is the casino. "We just did an upgrade in the facility," Williams said. "We used to have twelves boilers, we dropped it to four more efficient boilers. We're currently running at 29% efficiency which is great."

They also have a fleet of electric vehicles and golf carts to navigate the property. "This is one of our green vehicles," demonstrates Williams. "It's what we call our green truck. It's our...we use recycled rainwater in order to clean all of our locations from our cistern system."

The resort makes access to the casino easy and environmentally friendly by providing a convenient bus stop for public transportation, EV charging stations and bike parking.

You can also rest assured you're eating local. When possible, food and beverages are sourced locally. "Our goal here is to make sure that anybody who comes here enjoys and has a great experience but at the same time understand that we take our environment and the community 100 percent at heart," Williams said.