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comment Wal-Mart Introduces Second Generation of High-Efficiency Stores
In 2005, Wal-Mart president and CEO Lee Scott announced a companywide emphasis on environmentally responsible practices, a program called “Sustainability 360.” This program covers many aspects of Wal-Mart’s business, including packaging, transportation, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, and product sourcing. As part of this program, Wal-Mart committed to efficiency benchmarks for new and existing stores and on-site renewable power installations.
Based on what you have seen and read about this project, how would you grade it? Use the stars below to indicate your assessment, five stars being the highest rating.
Wal-Mart began exploring green building long before the Sustainability 360 program, building experimental stores to test materials and energy-efficiency measures beginning in 1993. In 2005, the company built experimental stores in Aurora, Colorado, and McKinney, Texas, that incorporated a wide range of green building strategies. In 2007, Wal-Mart opened three prototype high-efficiency stores that used technologies from the experimental stores and were designed to be 20% more energy efficient than conventional stores. These stores feature integrated hydronic heating and cooling systems and use recovered heat from refrigeration to heat domestic water for the restrooms and kitchen areas. A daylight-harvesting system equipped with sensors dims lights when enough daylight is available, and motion sensors turn on the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in the stores’ refrigerated cases when a customer approaches.
Now, Wal-Mart is opening the second generation of high-efficiency stores, four of which are planned to open in 2008. The first of these, opened in January 2008 in Romeoville, Illinois, is expected to be 25% more energy efficient than a conventional store. In this store, the refrigeration system is integrated with the heating and cooling systems: waste heat from the refrigeration system is used not only for domestic hot water but also for space heating. In addition, the store uses a secondary-loop refrigeration system, tested in the Aurora experimental store, that significantly reduces refrigerant needs, according to Don Moseley, director of sustainable facilities for Wal-Mart. Rather than distribute refrigerant to all of the refrigerated cases throughout the store, this system uses refrigerant to cool a fluid located in a secondary loop that travels to the cases. The system reduces leaks of the ozone-depleting hydrochlorofluorcarbon (HCFC) refrigerant, which is also a greenhouse gas.
Critics of Wal-Mart, including the Sierra Club and the activist organization it supports, Wal-Mart Watch, argue that the energy savings in these stores are small compared to the overall energy use of the chain and that the high-efficiency stores don’t address Wal-Mart’s contribution to sprawl. For its part, Wal-Mart works with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to offset each acre it develops by providing funding for wildlife preservation programs. But it has backed away from brownfield redevelopment, according to a sustainability report released in November 2007. A strategy that led to the construction of four stores on brownfield sites in 2006 was “too aggressive,” according to the report, leading Wal-Mart to search for “an approach that is more realistic for our business.”
For more information:
Wal-Mart Sustainability Report
www.walmartstores.com/sustainability/
Wal-Mart High-Efficiency Stores
www.walmartfacts.com (click on “Sustainability”)
This article was produced by BuildingGreen, Inc.- www.buildinggreen.com
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