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July 21, 2005
Give the devil its due
Although I am no fan of WalMart, I am willing to concede that if they begin to green up their retail stores, it could serve as an important positive example to other big boxers.
See below:
"We see it as a next step in evaluating the impact we leave on the environment as we look toward smart growth and sustainability in the building of our new stores," said Mike Duke, executive vice president and chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores - USA. "This store will contain many of the best resource conservation and sustainable design technologies currently available to minimize the use of energy and natural resources."
The McKinney store will experiment with materials, technology, and processes, which include:
* Reducing the amounts of energy and natural resources required to
operate and maintain the stores
* Reducing the amount of raw materials needed to construct the facility.
* Substituting, when appropriate the amount of renewable materials used
to construct and maintain the facility.
"We want to make the best use of renewable and alternate sources like wind and solar energy to generate electricity to supplement the power needs of the store," said Don Moseley, PE, Wal-Mart's experimental projects manager. "The store at McKinney will draw its energy first from on-site resources and systems, and then from conventional utility sources as a secondary service. For example, the waste cooking oil which had been used to fry chicken will be recycled by mixing it with used automotive oil from the Tire and Lube Express to serve as fuel to heat the building."
Biodiesel!! Mixed with waste oil!! That's pretty impressive.
Posted by aquacura.com at July 21, 2005 09:06 AM
Comments
It must be a site to see a windmill outside a Wal-Mart; maybe their move into sustainable resource management will carryover to the financial side, where their "footprint" on an economic landscape is a full, double E wide, size 9 boot.
Posted by: Junior at July 21, 2005 10:43 PM
Since Junior brought this project to my attention, I have read about it twice. Go to this link to see what Smart Growth Online has to say about it.
Hey, if WalMart can get some of their customers thinking about green practices, I'm all for it.
Posted by: Dave Sheridan at July 26, 2005 09:10 AM
I forgot to provide the link to Smart Growth Online.
Go to http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4859&state=52
Posted by: Dave Sheridan at July 26, 2005 09:20 AM