The World Leadership Awards is a competition that celebrates the very best in modern city leadership. It is an international honor that recognizes the efforts of top cities that set a worldwide example of innovation, imagination and foresight in government.

The Centennial Hills Master-Planned Campus won first place in the Sports and Leisure category, beating out projects in Lagos, Nigeria and Lima, Peru. The campus includes a fire station, 53-acre regional park, 98,385 square-foot multigenerational community center with active adult center component and indoor and outdoor aquatics facilities, a 46,000 square-foot library under construction and additional space for a future Metropolitan Police Department substation. The campus is surrounded by a middle school, residential neighborhoods including homes and apartments, and businesses. The facility is also operated with a unique public-private partnership between the city of Las Vegas and the YMCA.

The city’s Alternative Fuels program is one of the first of its kind and has been recognized worldwide for its innovative approach to fleet services. At the awards ceremony on Dec. 6, it won first place in the Transportation category, beating out entries from the city of Ahmedabad, India, and the city of Bremen, Germany. In 1993 the city of Las Vegas became the fifth city in the nation to be a part of the Clean Cities Program, and is recognized as a leader in alternative fuels. In 2002 the world’s first hydrogen energy station was built and put into operation at the city’s Northwest Service Center. Las Vegas was also the first desert city in the world to test two state of the art FCX Honda hydrogen fuel cell cars in 2005. The city of Las Vegas has also partnered with Ford Motor Company to bring two state-of-the-art, hydrogen-fueled buses to southern Nevada to serve the public along downtown bus routes. The only emission from these hydrogen vehicles is a bit of water!