Stock Markets
Las Vegas Sands Named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for World and North America
The company was included on DJSI World and DJSI North America for the fifth consecutive year; subsidiary Sands China Ltd (HK:). was named to DJSI World and DJSI Asia Pacific for the third year.
LAS VEGAS, Dec. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: NYSE:) was again recognized on the Dow Jones Sustainability™ Indices (DJSI), with placement on both DJSI World and DJSI North America for the fifth consecutive year. Sands China (OTC:) Ltd., the company’s Asian subsidiary, was named to DJSI World and DJSI Asia Pacific for the third consecutive year.
Sands and Sands China are the only two companies out of 18 invited to participate in the Casino (EPA:) and Gaming category listed on DJSI World this year. Sands is the only company in the Casino and Gaming category listed on DJSI North America, and Sands China is one of only two companies in the Casino and Gaming category listed on DJSI Asia Pacific.
DJSI World comprises global sustainability leaders identified by S&P Global through the Assessment. It represents the top 10% of the largest 2,500 companies in the S&P Global Broad Market Index based on long-term economic, environmental and social criteria. DJSI North America and DJSI Asia Pacific represent the top 20% of the 600 largest North American companies and the top 20% of the 600 largest companies in the Asia Pacific developed region in the S&P Global Broad Market Index based on the same criteria.
“To close this year with our fifth consecutive placement on DJSI speaks to the tremendous collaboration within many areas of our company, all working hand-in-hand to advance our environmental, social and governance initiatives,” Katarina Tesarova, senior vice president and chief sustainability officer, said. “We greatly value DJSI as a benchmark for our performance as well as its valuable feedback. To receive recognition on these lists is a fantastic endorsement, but we also learn from the process every year.”
Sands has leveraged the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment along with a number of external benchmarks and industry standards to shape its corporate responsibility programs and establish ESG targets, which have helped the company gain recognition through DJSI as well as other corporate responsibility rankings. Most recently, Sands was included on Newsweek’s America’s Most Responsible Companies. The company ranked 60th out of 600 companies included on Newsweek’s list and first in the hotels, dining and leisure industry.
Among the many targets Sands has set to drive its corporate responsibility progress during its 2021-2025 ESG reporting cycle are three primary ambitions aimed at increasing the company’s impact in the areas of workforce development, community service and carbon emissions reduction. These ambitions map to Sands’ People, Communities and Planet corporate responsibility pillars.
Under the People pillar, Sands aims to invest $200 million in workforce development by 2025. As of the end of 2023, Sands had invested $68 million in workforce development initiatives, bringing the company’s cumulative investment to $181 million since 2021.
Under its Communities pillar, Sands has set a target to contribute 250,000 Team Member volunteer hours by 2025 to advance causes in local regions. By the end of 2023, Sands Team Members had logged 222,823 volunteer hours in support of local nonprofits and community issues since 2021.
The company’s primary ambition under the Planet pillar of its corporate responsibility platform is to achieve a 17.5% reduction in carbon emissions by 2025. As of the end of 2023, Sands’ carbon emissions-reduction performance was 50% below the base year, despite resort visitation returning to pre-pandemic levels, which drove energy consumption increases.
Sands will update on 2024 progress made toward these ambitions in its next ESG report published in spring 2025.
The DJSI, including DJSI World, were launched in 1999 as the pioneering series of global sustainability benchmarks available in the market. The index family is comprised of global, regional and country benchmarks. The S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment is an annual evaluation of company sustainability practices and covers over 13,000 companies globally. It measures performance on a wide range of industry-specific economic, environmental and social criteria that are relevant to the growing number of sustainability-focused investors.
To learn more about Sands’ ESG initiatives, read its latest ESG report here: https://www.sands.com/resources/reports/.
About Sands (NYSE: LVS)
Sands is the leading global developer and operator of integrated resorts. The company’s iconic properties drive valuable leisure and business tourism and deliver significant economic benefits, sustained job creation, financial opportunities for local businesses and community investment to help make its host regions ideal places to live, work and visit.
Sands’ portfolio of properties includes Marina Bay Sands ® in Singapore and The Venetian ® Macao, The Londoner Macao ®, The Parisian Macao ®, The Plaza ® Macao and Four Seasons ® Hotel Macao, and Sands ® Macao in Macao SAR, China, through majority ownership in Sands China Ltd.
Dedicated to being a leader in corporate responsibility, Sands is anchored by the core tenets of serving people, communities and the planet. The company’s ESG leadership has led to inclusion on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for World and North America, as well as Fortune’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies. To learn more, visit www.sands.com.
By Maggie Fick and Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Members of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team are laying the groundwork for the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization on the first day of his second term, according to a health law expert familiar with the discussions.
“I have it on good authority that he plans to withdraw, probably on Day One or very early in his administration,” said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health (NS:) Law.
The Financial Times was first to report on the plans, citing two experts. The second expert, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, was not immediately available for comment.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The plan, which aligns with Trump’s longstanding criticism of the U.N. health agency, would mark a dramatic shift in U.S. global health policy and further isolate Washington from international efforts to battle pandemics.
Trump has nominated several critics of the organization to top public health positions, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who is up for the post of secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees all major U.S. health agencies including the CDC and FDA.
Trump initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020 but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.
Trump has argued that the agency failed to hold China accountable for the early spread of COVID-19. He has repeatedly called the WHO a puppet of Beijing and vowed to redirect U.S. contributions to domestic health initiatives.
A WHO spokesperson declined to directly comment but referred Reuters to comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing on Dec. 10 in which he was asked whether he was concerned that the Trump administration would withdraw from the organization.
Tedros said at the time that the WHO needed to give the U.S. time and space for the transition. He also voiced confidence that states could finalize a pandemic agreement by May 2025.
Critics warn that a U.S. withdrawal could undermine global disease surveillance and emergency response systems.
“The U.S. would lose influence and clout in global health and China would fill the vacuum. I can’t imagine a world without a robust WHO. But U.S. withdrawal would severely weaken the agency,” Gostin said.
U.Today – MicroStrategy has made headlines again by purchasing 5,262 BTC for approximately $561 million at an average price of $106,662 per BTC. The company now holds a staggering 444,262 BTC, accumulated at a total cost of approximately $27.7 billion, with an average purchase price of $62,257 per BTC.
Despite impressive returns of 47.4% since the beginning of the quarter and 73.7% since the beginning of the year, skepticism about the company’s strategy is growing.
It is believed that to sustain its purchases, MicroStrategy raises capital through methods such as issuing convertible and corporate bonds, securing credit lines and selling shares.
This cycle appears to operate as follows: shares are sold to acquire the cryptocurrency, and the rising price per BTC increases asset value, enabling further loans, which are then reinvested in more purchases.
Some observers warn that a significant decline in Bitcoin’s price or MicroStrategy’s stock could trigger a cascade effect. A sharp fall in MSTR shares would weaken the collateral backing its loans, potentially leading to forced asset sales, including BTC.
This scenario could exert downward pressure on the broader cryptocurrency market, as the company holds 2.2% of the global Bitcoin supply now.
Thus, while some view Michael Saylor’s approach as a bold bid to cement the cryptocurrency’s role in the financial system, others see it as unsustainable. History offers a cautionary note: in 2000, MSTR shares surged to $333 before plummeting 99%, a collapse that took 24 years to recover from.
National homebuilder ranked No. 12 on inaugural list ranking companies based on trust
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — With a longstanding reputation for trust, national homebuilder and land developer Taylor Morrison (NYSE:) (NYSE: ™HC) has been recognized by Forbes on their inaugural list of the Most Trusted Companies in America. The homebuilder ranked No. 12 out of 300 companies across all industries.
“There are few things more powerful than trust and it’s something we strive to earn amongst all company stakeholders, from our customers to our team members, our shareholders, and our local communities,” said Taylor Morrison Chairman and CEO Sheryl Palmer. “To be included on this esteemed list in its inaugural year is especially meaningful and these awards are important reminders of the relationships we’re building across all aspects of our business.”
Fueled by hundreds of millions of data points, the Most Trusted Companies in America list combines data on a wide range of factors across four categories: employee trust, customer trust, investor trust and media sentiment. The ranking was created in partnership with research companies HundredX, Signal AI and Glassdoor.
Taylor Morrison also earned the No. 67 spot on Forbes’ inaugural America’s Best Companies list. The ranking is Forbes’ most comprehensive company ranking to date and factored in ratings for financial performance, customer and employee satisfaction, cybersecurity, sustainability, companies’ remote work policies, media coverage and more. Forbes’ America’s Best Companies list assessed more than 60 metrics across 11 primary categories to identify which organizations excel across the board. Of the more than 2,000 U.S.-based publicly traded companies that were eligible, only 300 qualified for each list.
In addition to being named among the Most Trusted and Best Companies in America by Forbes, Taylor Morrison holds several additional accolades including being named on Newsweek’s America’s Most Responsible Companies and America’s Greenest Companies lists, U.S. News & World Report’s Best Companies to Work For list, the American Opportunity (SO:) Index, America’s Most Trusted ® Home Builder for nine years, Hearthstone’s 2021 BUILDER Humanitarian Award, and inclusion on the Fortune 500 list since 2021.
About Taylor Morrison
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Taylor Morrison is one of the nation’s leading homebuilders and developers. We serve a wide array of consumers from coast to coast, including first-time, move-up, luxury and resort lifestyle homebuyers and renters under our family of brands”including Taylor Morrison, Esplanade and Yardly. From 2016-2024, Taylor Morrison has been recognized as America’s Most Trusted ® Builder by Lifestory Research. Our long-standing commitment to sustainable operations is highlighted in our annual Sustainability and Belonging Report.
For more information about Taylor Morrison, please visit www.taylormorrison.com.
CONTACT:
media@taylormorrison.com
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