Zappos was thrilled to get down and dirty this month at the biannual Las Vegas Wash “Green Up”. Members of the Zappos LEAF team joined more than 350 other community members (boy scouts, girl scouts, students, church groups and businesses) to plant 3,000 trees and shrubs in a 7-acre area along the banks of the wash. The sun was shining, water was flowing and adults and kids were chatting about the importance of preserving this spectacular oasis inside the Las Valley.

The Las Vegas Wash Coordination Committee stated, “The efforts of these volunteers have created much-needed habitat for wildlife living along the Las Vegas Wash. Re-vegetation also has helped stabilize the wash’s banks, reducing erosion and improving water quality into Lake Mead, the source of the Las Vegas Valley's drinking water.”

See you all next fall at the 22^nd Las Vegas Wash “Green Up”!

Zappos is excited to continue its commitment to cleaner highways by renewing its partnership with Adopt A Highway for the ninth year.  When Zappos moved to Las Vegas in 2005, we were only able to sponsor three miles of highway. But every year since then, we’ve been able to adopt more miles with Adopt a Highway. Now in 2013, Zappos sponsors 158 miles of highway in the Las Vegas valley and we’re on the waiting list for 20 more miles! We are excited to say we’re the second largest sponsor of highway cleanup in the nation!

Adopt a Highway crews clean the right shoulders of these sponsored highways up to two times a month. In 2012, 9,300 bags of garbage were collected along the roadsides, equaling roughly 40 tons of waste. We don’t even want to imagine how things would be without this amazing program! Needless to say, we’re proud to continue our support of keeping Nevada’s highways clean.

Photos courtesy of Adopt a Highway

Zappos saved tons of building materials and assets during the renovation of the old city hall building to donate to Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas. 125 fluorescent light fixtures, 85 sinks, 60 solid doors, 50 toilets, 20 water fountains, and much, much more will now go toward renovating homes in Las Vegas. Our awesome construction crew at Penta Building Group carefully removed the fixtures and assets so that they could be reused.

Randy Corwin, Area Field Manager for Penta, said, “I’m proud of our entire team. From the start, we were focused and committed to reach our waste diversion goals. The donation by Zappos helped us exceed these goals. And the best part is, ‘It’s the right thing to do.’”

Habitat for Humanity’s crews spent three days loading box trucks full of the assets. Tracy Gray, Donations Relations Coordinator for Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas, said, “Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas is very happy to receive these materials. This donation fits in perfectly with our ReStore motto “ReUse, ReCycle, ReNew, ReBuild.” 

Our Zappos development team is thrilled that these assets will be used in upcoming renovation projects, and others will be sold to support Habitat for Humanity’s mission to provide affordable, sustainable housing in Las Vegas.

Zappos is composting! It’s true; we have partnered with A1 Organics to collect and compost the food scraps and paper products that are generated in the Z-Bistro. For the last few months, we have been testing the compost collection system inside the kitchen where food scraps from daily prep are separated and collected for composting. Recently, we extended the reach of the collection to include the leftover food scraps, napkins, and paper plates from the dining room. More than 1,000 meals are served a day - this makes for a lot of scraps!

Just to be clear, we are not composting on-site since we don’t have a worm farm out back (but how cool would that be!). Rather, we are sending our compostable materials to A1’s facility north of Las Vegas. A1 has over 50 acres of land dedicated to making 24,000 tons of mulch and compost a year from the food scraps collected from Zappos, supermarkets and Strip casinos, and green waste from many local landscaping companies and golf courses. After 90 days of processing, the mulch and compost returns to the city and is sold at local nurseries – a great life cycle story.

In typical Zappos style, we had a party to celebrate our composting initiative. The day-long “compost party” featured education from LEAF and A1 Organics and muddy cup treats from the Z-Bistro kitchen team. Mmm, tasty!

Last week, the L.E.A.F. and Bistro teams joined forces to promote the message of "reuse" and delivered FREE MUGS and FREE HUGS to the employees at the Carson office; free COFFEE mugs, that is! Washable, reusable ceramic coffee mugs were given to employees to take the place of the numerous paper coffee cups used each day.

To add a little bit of flare to these coffee mugs, we provided plenty of paint and glitter pens to make each mug “z”unique. Every day, Zappos employees work hard to use less paper products and reduce waste through initiatives like this one. We encourage employees to take green actions seriously, but above all want to make sure they have FUN with it!

Check out some of their beautiful mug masterpieces below:

The LEAF (Leading Environmental Awareness for the Future) Team is always looking for ways to introduce new eco benefits to our fellow Zapponians. Last week, LEAF set up new, convenient Cell Phone Recycling Centers across our campus. We’re asking employees to clean out that drawer full of old cell phones, power cables, old school pagers, and even Zack Morris cell phones! (We know you have one!) It is time to get rid of that iPhone 1 or Razr you’ve been holding on to.

LEAF has partnered with Newsweek’s #3 Greenest Company in America, Sprint-Nextel, to launch this exciting initiative. Here’s how it works: LEAF collects the devices from employees and Sprint-Nextel recycles the equipment in an environmentally responsible manner. To seal the deal, Sprint-Nextel donates proceeds from the recycled material to a charity of our choice!

Stay tuned for updates about this and other green initiatives here at Zappos HQ!