Helping Others Reduce Their Carbon Footprint
In addition to reducing the energy consumption in our own stores and Sam's Club facilities, we are also taking steps to help our customers and members reduce the footprint of their homes. In 2008, Sam's Club converted nine Southern California facilities to include home energy efficiency centers within the aisles. These centers offer members roof-top solar panels (one of the first mass-market distribution efforts), energy-efficient appliances, next-generation efficient lighting, and other products that promote sustainability such as low-flow toilets and showerheads. In 2009, Sam's Club expects that nearly all of its locations will feature centers like this.
To share our learnings, we partnered with the National Governors Association (NGA) in the U.S. in 2008 to launch the "Greening State Capitols" program. This unique public-private partnership between NGA and Walmart offered energy audits of capitol complexes around the country, providing recommendations on efficiency improvements and estimates of the amount of energy and money each state can save. During a two-day auditing process, we sent a team of engineering experts to survey state buildings and to suggest energy efficiency improvements based on technologies that we have successfully deployed in a number of our stores, Sam's Club locations and additional facilities around the world. The areas covered in the audit included:
- lighting,
- heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems (HVAC),
- refrigeration and other equipment,
- technologies such as programmable thermostats, and
- building structure, including insulation and windows.
We are currently delivering final written reports to participating states and working with the NGA to compile cumulative results of the partnership, which will be published later this year.
