Original subtitles

[narrator] On Tomorrow's World Today

we explore the cutting-edge advances

that are shaping four different worlds.

The world of inspiration,

where the wonders of the natural world amaze and inspire us.

The world of creation,

where ideas come to life from traditional arts.

The world of innovation,

where ideas and inventions move us all forward.

The world of production,

where innovations are mass produced

to improve our lives.

From Inventionland world headquarters,

here's your host George Davison.

When we think of a desert oasis,

we think of a place

that has clean water, clean air,

and a space to relax.

The Las Vegas desert is a different type of oasis.

It's known for its bright lights

over-the-top entertainment and endless possibilities.

But beyond the glitz and glamour,

a pressing concern to maintain an oasis

of clean air, clean water and sustainable practices.

Luckily, the entertainment capital of the world

is taking great strides toward sustainability

and recognizing the need for change.

By understanding the significance

of preserving resources,

they're creating a sustainable environment

for both residents and visitors alike.

Resorts are using innovative water management systems

to filter and re-use water,

as well as intelligent air filtration systems

to ensure that the air we breathe

is free of impurities, allergens and even odors.

So I'm gonna send Tamara to the world of innovation

to explore how one hotel

balances luxurious experiences with responsible practices

and is becoming a highly sought-after,

eco-conscious travel destination for tomorrow's world.

[Tamara] In 1906,

a year after Las Vegas was founded,

the Golden Gate opened its doors

as a Hotel Nevada.

A small hotel with a few gambling options.

The after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake,

it was renamed as the Golden Gate Casino,

as a tribute to the Golden Gate bridge.

As technology advanced, so did its offerings.

Electric lights, ventilation, steam heat radiators.

Then in 1907,

it became the first hotel in Las Vegas

to have phones inside the guest rooms.

And in 1970,

it welcomed the very first escalators to the city.

Fast forward to today where as you know,

Las Vegas has become one of the most popular

innovative vacation destinations in the country.

Today, I'll be talking with Greg Stevens,

co-owner of Circa Hotel and Casino

about all kinds of sustainability initiatives here in Las Vegas.

Greg, it is so nice to meet you in person.

So nice to meet you as well, Tamara.

Thank you for coming out.

Well, I appreciate you taking the time to talk,

because I have a lot of questions

about what it takes to make a Las Vegas hotel and casino

both sustainable and as successful.

That's fantastic. I've got a great place to start.

Welcome to Stadium Swim.

[Tamara] Oh, my.

This is amazing.

-I have never seen anything like this. -[Greg laughs]

[Tamara] You know, if there's anything

that Vegas has become synonymous with

aside from gambling,

its pool parties.

So tell me a little bit more about how this came to be.

Yeah, so pool parties have been in Las Vegas

for about 15 or 18 years now,

and they've largely kind of been the same thing.

But we wanted to kind of take it to the next level

and come up with a new concept here

with the green screens, the clean water,

the great viewing angles.

[Tamara] Well, clearly you've taken it to the next level.

I mean, looking at this screen,

I can totally picture kicking back,

watching a game,

hanging out in the sunshine.

Which brings me to your question,

how do you keep things so clear out there?

This screen is specifically designed to be in the sun.

So it's got little shutters on it,

they kind of actually block the sun out on every little pixel.

And it just makes this 148 foot screen

that much clearer in the sunshine.

You couldn't by any chance

help me get one of these for my backyard, could you?

I know a guy.

-I thought you might. -[Greg laughs]

I had another question.

These pools are so massive.

There are so many people here.

How do you keep it clean?

[Greg] Well, like most things.

There's a little magic there,

and I can show you the secret sauce downstairs.

I love seeing behind the scenes.

[Greg] Let's go check it out.

[Tamara] Okay, wait, before we go,

I-- I have got to get a look at this water.

-It is so clean and pretty. -[Greg laughs]

[Greg] That's our goal.

We wanna make sure our water is crystal clear

no matter how many people are in the pool.

[Tamara] How quickly does it take to turn this all over?

[Greg] Uh, most pools it takes a while.

But we actually filter all this water every 55 minutes.

-Wha-- What? -Yep.

Okay, you need to tell me more about how you actually do that.

Let's go check it out.

So these pumps are how we can change over our water

as quickly as we do.

-Each one of these pumps is 10 horsepower. -Wow.

[Greg] They can move 500 gallons per minute.

[Tamara] That's really fast.

How many pumps does each pool use?

So in the big pools, we have two pumps.

We can move a 1000 gallons a minute.

-[Tamara] Uh-huh? -[Greg] And the smaller pools,

[Greg] we can get by with just this one pump.

Very cool. Very, very cool.

All right, what's the next step?

The next step is over to the filters.

Okay, let's take a look.

[Tamara] I'm at Circa Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas,

exploring how their innovative water purification system

and advanced filtration technology

makes Stadium Swim the cleanest pool in Las Vegas.

-So this is the first step in our filtering process. -Yeah.

They very first thing we do

is we run all that water we just talked about

through this glass bead media filter.

-Uh-huh. -And so this will filter out

[Greg] all the dust and dirt and little particles

and even all the way down to the size of little bacteria or viruses.

[Tamara] You know, it kind of reminds me of when I was little

and used to make those like, hollowed sand sculptures with the layers.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

It's kind of the same idea.

Once it gets a little bit clogged up,

we wanna go ahead and flush this out.

-[Tamara] Yeah. -[Greg] So we run a backwash,

[Greg] so it reverses the flow so the water goes backwards through the filter,

and then we take that dirty water and dump it down the drain.

Then one of the next steps is we come over here.

This is our UVC light filter.

So this is something a little bit extra.

Not every pool's gonna have this.

But this makes sure

that every little living organism in the water

is sanitized and cleaned out.

Well, in this case,

I am definitely in favor of being a little bit extra.

[laughs] It is a little extra, that's for sure.

I love the fact that this filtration and cleansing process

is used in so many different kinds of science.

I mean, from this light process

-to you know, you've got physical filters. -Yeah.

And then I know we're gonna take a look at some computer stuff, so.

Let's go take a look.

So this is where we monitor the chemistry of the pool

twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

[Tamara] And what should the levels be?

What should pH be at for chlorine?

[Greg] So pH should be about 7.4,

and the chlorine we wanna have two or three parts per million.

[Tamara] And how quickly can the system respond

if you see that something's off?

It's almost instantaneous.

As soon as the water comes through here,

it recognizes it and starts turning the pumps on.

What kinds of things will actually throw off the levels?

Sun will chew up chlorine,

-just human bodies in the pool... -[Tamara] Yeah.

[Greg] ...and natural breakdown of the borine.

So the more people that are in the pool,

the more chlorine you need.

No matter how many people are in the pool,

how big the party is,

this can keep track of it

and adjust it almost instantly,

and that's how our water is so crystal clear all the time.

Seems like a perfect cocktail of, uh, pool water.

That's right.

We filter it and we make sure the chemistry is spot on

to make the best pool cocktail.

What's the next step?

The next step, we'll show you where the, uh,

the chlorine is pumped into the pool.

-All right, let's go take a look. -Let's go check it out.

What am I surrounded by in here?

[laughs] So this is 3000 gallons of chlorine

just up here on this floor

just to make sure we have enough at any given time.

And it's also a way for us to bring it in in bulk.

Okay, so that's part of your sustainability effort, right?

Absolutely.

Less trucks on the road, less diesel, less containers.

We could bring it in this way the best we can.

And I would imagine having it all on hand

allows you to react in the moment,

like we were talking about.

The pools need a little chlorine.

These pumps turn on

and they start putting chlorine right in the pool right away.

And that's how we're able to keep the pool crystal clear

no matter how many people are in the pool.

Very cool.

So, Tamara, I saw you eyeing our slushie machines here.

Well, you gotta admit.

There's nothing like a cool slushie on a hot day.

That's very true.

And having a highly effective refrigeration system

is really critical in Las Vegas,

because the temperature can be well over a 100 degrees every day.

Yeah, so just how do you keep these things cool

when it's that hot out?

I'm so glad you asked. Let's go check it out.

Okay.

[Greg] So this is where the magic happens

and how we keep all of our refrigerators

and slush machines and coolers cold.

This is our variable-speed refrigeration system.

So wait.

So this is for everything in the building?

This is for all 278 coolers, refrigerators and freezers, slush machines

all around the whole property.

[Tamara] I have to admit,

it's got a much smaller footprint

than I would've expected

to take care of that many things.

[Greg] That's true.

Normally, you would have 278 individual air cool units

at every refrigerator.

But with this, we have variable speed of compressors

that are very large

and they can supply all the refrigerant to the whole building.

Okay, I have another cold question for you.

How do you actually keep the casinos nice and chilling?

There's another piece of that puzzle.

I'll show you that in a few minutes.

-Okay. -Let's go.

Oh, my God-- It is freezing in here.

[chuckles] This is an example of one of those rooms.

Those refrigerators I told you about

that's being powered by the refrigeration plant upstairs.

-Well, it is doing a very, very good job. -[both laugh]

How do you get all this beer in here anyway?

[Greg] Well, that's a good question too.

The beer is actually delivered directly to this room

from our beer suppliers.

They come right down the freight elevator,

directly right in here,

another little efficiency thing.

You are a model of efficiency.

[laughs] Thank you very much, that's the goal.

All right, now I wanna see how you keep the casinos cool

and get out of here 'cause it's too cool.

-Let's go check that out. -All right.

[Tamara] So we've talked a lot about clean water.

I'm curious about clean air.

'Cause people spend a lot of time here in the casino.

Absolutely.

We wanna have the cleanest air possible in the casino.

So how do you manage that?

We actually bring all the air through the floor

up through these grates,

and then go straight up through the ceiling

and out to the outside.

[Tamara] So it's being kind of recycled through?

[Greg] No, because of this method,

we're able to bring all the air in

from the outside of the building.

-On one side, come through here... -Mmm-hmm.

[Greg] ...give everybody fresh air,

distribute it all over the floor,

then right back out the other side of the building.

[Tamara] Oh, wow, how fast does it cycle through?

[Greg] Every two minutes and 47 seconds.

you get brand new air from zero to seven feet.

You like to cycle things through this building

very quickly, don't you?

-We do, we do. -[Tamara laughs]

All right, I wanna know about the delivery mechanism.

-Let's go check it out. -Okay.

So Tamara, you wanted to see how the ductwork works

and how we get the air through the building.

I could take you for a tour through the ductworks

-but I think this is probably a little bit easier. -[Tamara chuckles]

I appreciate that, thank you.

All right, so what am I looking at here?

So this kind of shows how the outside air comes in

from outside of the building.

Brings it through the heat exchanger,

that exchanges the heat between the inside air and the outside air.

And then it takes us over

to air conditioning system and the-- the blowers

that take the air right down to the floor.

And this is actually that grate

that we were looking at in the floor?

-That's right. -Okay.

So across is actually up.

-[laughs] -And then continuing up

and then this is the ceiling where it goes through.

-That's right. -Okay.

And then it comes on through,

and there's the crisscross again,

-the heat exchange... -Yep.

-...and then it heads on out. -That's right.

That's how we get a 100% fresh air.

Very cool.

Let's go take a look at the equipment.

All right, great. I like machines.

[Greg] So this is some of that big equipment

that we use to move all the air through the building.

-Yeah. Can I take a look inside? -Let's check it out.

[machine whooshing]

Oh, wow, that is-- That is loud.

I can see how fast that's moving.

So this is the way we bring it

from the outside of the building.

Up through, we cool the air

and we bring it up through the floor.

Then it gets exhausted back out again.

[Tamara] How many of these do you have?

We have about 16 of these around the building.

I probably should not lean in there too far.

I don't wanna get sucked in.

It's like a tornado in there.

All-- All right, let's get outta here

before something happens.

-[chuckles softly] Sounds good. -Okay.

Welcome to the chiller plant.

Yeah, it's a lot cooler in here.

So these are some of our hot water pumps.

This takes hot water over to the building.

I took advantage of that this morning.

[laughs] That's good.

And then these are our chill water pumps.

So these take all the cold water that we make out here...

-[Tamara] Yeah. -[Greg] ...over to the building

[Greg] that we can use for air conditioning,

and our refrigeration

and all the other stuff that we've looked at.

Oh, very cool.

And what are these over here?

So these are our chillers.

These are 3800 tons, ceramic-bearing chillers.

-[Tamara] Uh-huh? -[Greg] Uh, they're very, very efficient.

[Greg] They can actually work without the motor even running

on the cooler days outside.

[Tamara] Gotcha.

And so when it's a 105 degrees out,

how does that process happen?

Great question.

So normally, you're just sending heat off to the air.

But we use condensing water up to a cooling tower.

-And in Las Vegas, the air's so dry... -[Tamara] Mmm-hmm.

[Greg] ...that when the water evaporates,

you just need a little bit of water to evaporate.

It cools the rest of the water that it's attached to.

And that brings that water back here.

Today, about 70 degrees even though it's 105 outside.

I like the way that all of the elements work together

to create this little system for you.

[Greg] Absolutely. Allows us to get the building cold.

-[Tamara] Yeah. -[Greg] And bringing this all together

[Greg] in all these efficiencies,

it all culminates with the electrical system...

-Yeah. -...and a much lower electric bill.

-which I'll show you in just a minute. -Okay.

[Greg] This is how we get electricity up to our rooms

in the most efficient way possible.

So what exactly am I looking at here?

[Greg] So this is a fault-managed power system,

otherwise known as digital electricity.

[Tamara] How does it differ from a traditional or legacy system?

So traditional system, you would have a heavy conductor,

you'd have big wires, you have a conduit,

-because it's dangerous... -Yeah.

-...and you've gotta protect all that stuff. -Yeah. [laughs]

[Greg] This is actually managed power.

So it can't shock you.

And so that way, you don't have to use a conduit.

You can use a tiny little wire like this.

-So it really lowers your carbon footprint... -Mmm-hmm.

...by having less wire, less conduit,

uh, less transformers in the room.

It's just a much more efficient way

and a lower carbon footprint way of transmitting electricity.

[Tamara] That's gotta be really satisfying

as an engineer to see that all come together.

[Greg] It's very satisfying, for sure.

How much does a building like this usually use

and where are you guys at?

So a typical building our size

would probably be about six megawatts of power on an average day.

With all the things we've done,

we brought that number all the way down

to about three to three and a half megawatts.

That's what makes me feel good at the end of the day.

I'm also guessing it lowers your bills a little bit.

-It does do that as well. -[laughs]

Well, you mentioned the rooms.

I would love to see some of the sustainability efforts

that you've put into effect there.

Absolutely, we got a few more things to go take a look at.

-Okay. -Let's take a look.

Oh, wow, check out this gorgeous view.

It is an incredible view

And it's a special little view as well.

'Cause this isn't any ordinary glass.

[Tamara] Oh, yeah? Tell me about it.

Well, the glass is not only energy efficient...

-Mmm-hmm. -...but it's also some of the quietest glass

[Greg] you can get in the market.

[Tamara] So what is it that contributes to that?

Is it the sand the glass is made of?

Is it the thickness?

It's a little bit of everything.

So it's the thickness and the layers of glass

and the-- the gases we have in between,

and also some pretty special coatings on the outside.

[Tamara] Well, if I have learned anything

spending time with you so far,

it's that you have systems upon systems here.

And one of the things I'm noticing looking around this room

are the drapes.

So I'm guessing that factors in?

That's right.

When we wanna keep all the Las Vegas sun out,

whenever out guests is not in the room

or the room's unoccupied,

we've got a very easy way to just tap one little button,

and now we're blocking out all of the sun's rays.

-[Tamara] Well, that's nice and efficient. - [Greg] It sure is.

It's impressive to see how you here at Circa

have created so many opportunities

for the guests to participate in the sustainability process.

[Greg] For sure.

We want the guests to be as comfortable as possible,

but also have very easy access

to be as efficient as possible.

I noticed that plaque near the door,

the control panel with the "hi" and the "bye" to control the lights.

[Greg] Pretty sure.

Not only is it a beautiful little panel,

it's very intuitive for the guests to make it very easy.

Yes, which is good for somebody like me,

because I'm that person who will have all my stuff, I'll be ready to go,

and I'll look back, I'll have forgotten that light.

But I can just click on "bye"

and everything turns off and I'm ready to go.

Right back to the most efficient model we have.

[Tamara] All right, let's click and go.

[door closes]

Hey, Greg.

George, how are ya?

I'm great.

Welcome to Inventionland.

-Thanks for having me. -You bet.

Well, Tamara had a great time out there.

Thanks for taking care of her.

Oh, my pleasure. We had a lot of fun.

-Is this your place? -It is.

Circa Resort and Casino, downtown Las Vegas.

Wow. What an accomplishment.

-Congratulations. -Thank you very much.

[Greg] How about this pool?

She was going on and on about that pool.

[Greg] Yeah, that's Stadium Swim.

That's one of our signature features at Circa.

[chuckles] Oh, my God.

You can throw a heck of a party.

-We sure could. -[chuckles softly]

How did-- Does this have something to do with that picture?

[Greg] It does.

I thought this might be connected to that pool.

-Is it? -It sure is.

So we wanted to set a new bar for our pools

and make sure that water is clear and clean all the time,

no matter how many people are in the pool.

So how often does that water turn over?

So normally in a regular pool,

it's about every eight hours.

We do it every 45 to 55 minutes.

In less than an hour,

all that water's cleaned again?

With these big pumps and big filters and UV lights,

that allows us to get all that water filtered through

in that super-fast fashion.

So that water is crystal clear no matter how many people are in the pool.

That's amazing.

How about-- How about this picture?

So just like the pool water,

we wanna make sure that our air in the casino is just as clean.

You know, people like to have a cigar over sometimes...

And there's, you know, a lot of people in there,

it's gonna be some heat in the casino.

-Right. -But we thought

to make sure that all goes up and away

we're gonna bring the air in from the floor...

-Okay? -...so that way the air from the floor to seven feet

is brand new every two minutes and 47 seconds.

That's a great idea, bring it up from the bottom.

The air and the smoke wants to just rise right up and go right out.

So it's more efficient to just let it do what it wants to do.

So what's the story with this picture, Greg?

Is that where I'd be staying if I went out there?

It sure is, that could be your room.

Wow, it's beautiful.

Now, Tamara told me

there's a lot of sustainability going on in that room.

There is,

we've hidden a lot of sustainability things in that room.

And, uh, probably one of the biggest is the glass.

Because you know, we wanna keep that Las Vegas heat on that outside

and keep it nice and cool on the inside.

So there's all kinds of special coatings

and lot of insulation in that glass alone.

Uh, in addition to that,

we also have drapes that can automatically close.

And using the digital electricity that I showed Tamara,

you can push one little button

and it can shut the whole room down

and put it in the most eco-friendly mode possible.

I like it, that it's eco. All right.

Well, I'm coming out.

Sounds good, I can't wait to see ya.

You too.