[Vision2020] Wal mart Green Store

[Andy Boyd]

Here is an article from Waste News (a trade journal) that may be of some interest.   If we end up with a Super Duper Wal-Mart, should the community at large push for this?

Wal-Mart outshines the rest  
By: Brennan Lafferty
December 05, 2005
 
Store manager Brent Allen knew his new Wal-Mart in Texas was special when a woman from Oregon sought him out and gave him a great big hug. 
``I am just so impressed that you as a company would take the kind of time that you are taking and the money it must have cost to build this store to test these things,'' she said to Allen, who manages the green supercenter that opened in McKinney, Texas, in July. 

The woman and her husband were struck by the sight of the store's wind turbine as they drove near the intersection of Interstate 75 and U.S. Highway 380. Curious, they doubled back in their motor home to investigate. 

Allen, a 14-year Wal-Mart employee, would eventually spend 30 minutes explaining not only how the wind turbine generates 5 percent of the store's energy but also the 25 other environmental experiments housed inside and outside the store. 

``[The store] has really captured the attention of people, in general,'' he said. 

Fans and foes of the country's largest employer are easy to find. The $298 billion retailer is even the subject of two films this fall that separately build up and tear down the company. But some of Wal-Mart's biggest detractors - environmental groups - are grudgingly singing the praises of Wal-Mart of late. While these praises may not be a full-fledged hug, they are akin to an ``atta-boy'' slug to the shoulder of the Bentonville, Ark.-based company. 

The editorial staff of Waste News has taken note as well. From January through November, Wal-Mart unveiled several broad-ranging environmental initiatives that could have lasting impact on the company, its suppliers and the retail sector. From an ever-expanding plastic recycling project to the pledge of CEO Lee Scott to reduce waste generation and greenhouse gas emissions, the company thrust itself into a green hot spotlight this year. 

So for its 2005 performance and for its future commitments, Wal-Mart has earned the first Waste News Environmental Award. The Award recognizes a company that has made significant environmental progress in the way it operates its business. While past performance and future pledges were considered, Waste News staff gave the most weight to initiatives launched in 2005 when choosing its winner. 

The feeling is mutual 

So what's going on at Wal-Mart? Or more to the point, why has the mega-retailer made this very public push into environmental management? The simple answer seems to be that it makes good business sense. 

``I believe, in fact, that being a good steward of the environment and in our communities, and being an efficient and profitable business, are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are one and the same,'' Scott said in an October speech that outlined the company's environmental vision. The CEO, in the same speech, tackled other high-profile issues like the federal minimum wage of $5.15, calling the hourly rate ``out of date with the times.'' 

Environmentally, Scott simplified Wal-Mart's long-range plans, saying the company wants to be supplied by 100 percent renewable energy, create zero waste and sell products that sustain resources and the environment. 

In the short term, Wal-Mart will push multiple policies, including ones that decrease waste generation by 25 percent and increase fuel efficiency by 25 percent in its fleet of 7,100 tractors and 44,500 trailers. 

When Andy Ruben, vice president of corporate strategy and sustainability, talks about Wal-Mart's plans, he talks about efficiency. Redesigning a product and the box it is shipped in, for example, not only eliminates waste and saves natural resources, it allows for more items to be shipped and can improve aerodynamics and fuel efficiency for the vehicle doing the shipping. 

This type of efficiency, though, requires a commitment from the company's 60,000 suppliers. Ruben indicates that those folks are on board. 

``As we have made those changes, a number of suppliers, who in many cases are leading the way, are starting to share more ideas with us,'' he said. 

Wal-Mart started down this path by first gathering input. Executives traveled around the country and around the world. Scott, the CEO, visited Mount Washington to investigate climate data. Others visited farms in Kansas to learn about carbon sequestration. The company separately convened meetings that included some of its critics. Members of those groups, which Wal-Mart is not identifying, described their outlook to Ruben as cautiously optimistic. 

``It's our job to prove that right,'' he said. 

Stephen Hoch, a retail and marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, downplays Wal-Mart's financial investment in environment management. 

``This really does not cost Wal-Mart very much at all,'' he said. ``So make the one-time changeover cost and come up with a better policy that sort of helps everybody in the long run. They are so humongous that anything they do is going to have some sort of important economic impact.'' 

Hoch also isn't too concerned with Wal-Mart's motivation for its new environmental stance. 

``I think it does set a precedent for others in the [retail] industry. We see that everything that Wal-Mart does becomes, in some sense, standard operating procedure for others, so why shouldn't this be the case too? So let's applaud them and not worry about why they're doing it,'' Hoch said. 

Green welcome mat 

The philosophy at work at Wal-Mart's new green supercenters in McKinney, Texas, and Aurora, Colo., goes something like this: Test dozens of environmental projects, share the technical data with one and all, and then push the marketplace into adopting what works. That then drives down prices for the currently expensive green technology. 

The two green supercenters are clearly Wal-Mart's most visible environmental investment to date. 

On the outside of these 206,000-sq.-ft. structures, stop signs and pedestrian crossing signs run on solar power. Ponds collect rainwater that irrigate plants in and around the supercenters. Inside the stores, maps and special floor tiles direct customers to energy-efficient food coolers and waterless urinals. Less visible are items like the oil recycling project that transfers cooking byproducts from the deli and oil from the automotive center to the store's boiler. Other highlights include one-time projects like the recycling of 518 tons of concrete from a Denver airport that was used as the foundation in the Aurora store. 

Don Moseley, Wal-Mart's director of experimental stores, won't reveal how much more it cost to construct the two stores. He contends the extra costs are not relevant. 

``They have a broad variety of experiments. Some of them are at a scale to facilitate the whole store. Others are at a scale sufficient to learn about a specific component or vendor,'' he said. 

The costs increased even more because Wal-Mart built in what Moseley called an exit strategy for its experiments. For example, the company placed plumbing behind the walls of its waterless urinals in case the experiment doesn't prove worthwhile. 

Regardless of the cost, preliminary data shows the green supercenter in McKinney is between 6 and 10 percent more energy-efficient than another Wal-Mart in town that opened almost two years ago, Moseley said. 

Monitoring the experiments for Wal-Mart are two arms of the federal government. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory set up sensors in both McKinney stores to measure conservation and energy usage. 

``We were hired to say the good, the bad and the ugly,'' Jeffrey Christian of the Oak Ridge lab said in July. His group will independently study the experiments for three years just as the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colo., will monitor the Aurora supercenter. 

The goal will be to intermittently share the results with anyone who is interested. 

To that end, Allen, the McKinney store manager, says he's directed about 25 tours for business leaders. 

``I looked up one day and there were about 45 Target people in my store. I forgot where I was working,'' he said. 

Allen says that alone should tell everyone how serious Wal-Mart is in seeing their environmental message filter through the business world. 

``This is bigger than Wal-Mart. And it's more important. The environment is what wins in the end,'' he said. 

Wal-Mart's green stores put it ahead of the curve. There does seem to be a small but growing trend of retailers building green. 

The U.S. Green Building Council, which was not involved in the Wal-Mart supercenters, has given some level of certification to nine retailers in 2004 and 2005. Eight other companies, including Target, the Gap and Disney, have expressed interest in gaining certification from the council, a spokeswoman said. 

Important first steps 

Environmental and advocacy groups quickly acknowledge the progress Wal-Mart has made in 2005. But they want more. They are especially concerned when Wal-Mart develops on wetlands and farms. 

``The big box model of stores like Wal-Mart threaten our landscape and communities by building on the fringe of town, paving vast areas for stores and parking lots and often undermining the economic health of existing downtown shopping areas,'' said Tanya Tolchin of the Sierra Club. 

Wal-Mart Watch, a group that monitors its namesake's business practices and environmental impacts, hopes that the company's initiatives are not ``a distraction from their other public relations problems.'' 

``Having said that, Wal-Mart is a leader within the retail sector, and we hope that these changes prompt other companies to implement environmentally friendly practices,'' press secretary Nu Wexler said. 

Wexler is particularly concerned about the two green supercenters. He worries they'll close or be converted to regular stores, much like he said Wal-Mart did to an environmentally friendly store it built in Lawrence, Kan. 

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said the company did operate three environmental stores in the 1990s. The stores in Lawrence, Kan., City of Industry, Calif., and Moore, Okla., tested one or two experiments per store. Successful trials for skylights, low-mercury lamps and sensor-activated faucets in those stores are now standard in many of today's stores, she said. 

But Wal-Mart will be much more open this time around with what it learns at its two green supercenters. 

``That's why these outside [labs] have been hired, so that they can monitor and report to the public, report to the industry and hold us accountable,'' she said. 

Sierra Club and Wal-Mart Watch spokesmen also said neither group was represented at the meetings Wal-Mart executives convened in the past year to listen to and address criticism of the company. 

Wal-Mart did run afoul of environmental regulators this year. 

In August, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $1.15 million to settle alleged stormwater violations at 22 of its Connecticut stores. The state Department of Environmental Protection accused the company of violating clean water regulations on several occasions between 1996 and 2003. Wal-Mart pledged to cooperate with the agency and avoid future occurrences. 

The future 

Look for more environmental progress from Wal-Mart next year. 

The company plans to expand its innovative plastics recycling program. Through October, its pilot project recycled 3.5 million pounds, or 1,750 tons, of plastics at 10 percent of its stores. The program bales bags, film and shrink-wrap between layers of cardboard. 

Rocky Mountain Recycling and Wal-Mart developed the ``plastic sandwich bale'' system after Wal-Mart asked for assistance finding end uses for recovered plastics. The pilot program will expand to Wal-Mart stores coast to coast in 2006, said Jeff Ashby, sales and marketing manager at Rocky Mountain Recycling. 

Whether the subject is recycling plastics or investing in technologies to reduce greenhouse gases, Wal-Mart leaders refer to 2005 as a beginning. 

``I think we're just scratching the surface,'' said Ruben, the company's sustainability chief. ``And what happens is the more people that we work with and the more educated we become along this journey, the more opportunity that we see.'' 

Contact Waste News managing editor Brennan Lafferty at (330) 865-6174 or blafferty at crain.com

Andy Boyd
Manager/Education Coordinator
Moscow Recycling
208 882 0590
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