Walmart takes the Green Lead

pettyfog · Jan 3, 2007

Using Marketing muscle to save energy

While it sounds like a promising idea, it turns out that the long-lasting, swirl-shaped light bulbs known as compact fluorescent lamps are to the nation’s energy problem what vegetables are to its obesity epidemic: a near perfect answer, if only Americans could be persuaded to swallow them.

But now Wal-Mart Stores, the giant discount retailer, is determined to push them into at least 100 million homes. And its ambitions extend even further, spurred by a sweeping commitment from its chief executive, H. Lee Scott Jr., to reduce energy use across the country, a move that could also improve Wal-Mart’s appeal to the more affluent consumers the chain must win over to keep growing in the United States.

“The environment,” Mr. Scott said, “is begging for the Wal-Mart business model.”

It is the environmental movement’s dream: America’s biggest company, legendary for its salesmanship and influence with suppliers, encouraging 200 million shoppers to save energy.

For all its power in retailing, though, Wal-Mart is meeting plenty of resistance — from light-bulb makers, competitors and consumers. To help turn the tide, it is even reaching out to unlikely partners like Google, Home Depot and Hollywood.
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Wal-Mart's $1 Billion Problem

The nation's largest retailer is also its largest private energy user. But a new green-building initiative aims to change that
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Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, is also the nation’s largest private energy user. Each of the Bentonville, Arkansas–based discount giant’s 2,074 supercenters uses an average of 1.5 million kilowatts per year; combined, that’s enough to power Chile. The 3,800-store chain’s annual power bill tops out at about $1 billion.

Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott aims to change that with an aggressive green building campaign. In 2005 he outlined a corporate plan to cut store energy use by 30 percent and reduce waste by 25 percent over the next three years, investing $500 million a year in sustainable innovations in new construction

LED lighting is one technology the company will be deploying more widely, for example. Those lights will replace fluorescent tubes in freezer and display cases, resulting in 50 percent energy savings and longer life expectancy. Roof-mounted solar panels and wind turbines yielded less successful results, however, and require further evaluation before being used on a broad scale. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will monitor the two stores for two more years to determine which items will be used in future building plans.

Regarding other potential applications, Don Moseley, Wal-Mart’s special projects engineer, says, “There are high hopes for evaporative cooling, waterless urinals, composting of organic materials, and many other concepts, and each are being carefully studied, evaluated, and in some cases incorporated into additional ‘test’ environments in more prototypical stores.” Native landscaping, waterless urinals, and electronic sensor sinks decreased water use by 85 percent at the McKinney facility, for example, although installation at standard-issue stores will likely differ.

While testing continues, Wal-Mart will begin integrating sustainable components of its experimental stores into new stores during the first part of 2007. It’s also initiating a preference program for its 60,000 suppliers to set their own environmental goals.
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And THERE lies the secret.... when energy saving is mandated, the accountants and MBA's get involved. When it's done to provide or maintain sales, the engineers get involved.

And there's REAL savings for everyone concerned.

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Walmart takes the Green Lead

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Walmart takes the Green Lead

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