#9 Walmart

BY Chuck Salter February 17, 2010 Photograph Courtesy of Walmart

1. Facebook 2. Amazon 3. Apple 4. Google 5. Huawei 6. First Solar 7. PG&E 8. Novartis 9. Walmart 10. HP

11. Hulu 12. Netflix 13. Nike 14. Intel 15. Spotify 16. BYD 17. Cisco Systems 18. IBM 19. GE

20. Disney

21. Gilt Groupe 22. Indian Premier League 23. PatientsLikeMe 24. Grey New York 25. BMW Group Designworks USA 26. Synthetic Genomics 27. FiLife 28. Frito-Lay 29. Alibaba 30. MITRE

31. HTC 32. Diller Scofidio + Renfro 33. Firstborn 34. Sportvision 35. Ideo 36. Samsung 37. Glam Media 38. Ngmoco 39. VNL 40. Aldi Sd

41. Fast Retailing 42. Huayi Brothers 43. Athenahealth 44. MVRDV 45. Alstom 46. Quantcast 47. Good Guide 48. Microsoft 49. Politico 50. Twitter

The world's largest retailer took its boldest leap yet in a quest to green its entire operation with a new plan to rate the sustainability of every product it sells. "We've moved quickly on our goals because of the collaborative ways we've been doing it," says SVP of sustainability Matt Kistler. Tapping its 2 million employees, 100,000 global suppliers, and a consortium of NGOs, scientists, and other businesses, Walmart has grown into the world's greenest retailer.

Goals

October 2005: Then-CEO Lee Scott announces ambitious goals: create zero waste, use only renewable energy, and sell products that sustain the environment.

Packaging

October 2005: Partners with Unilever to introduce superconcentrated liquid laundry soap. The move remakes the industry, saving an estimated 25 million pounds of plastic resin, 140 million gallons of water, and 40 million pounds of cardboard each year.

Greener Lightbulbs

Slideshow 11 Ways That Walmart Is Changing Retail -- for Good

August 2006: Aims to sell 100 million compact fluorescent lightbulbs in 12 months. Despite the higher price tag, it sells 137 million CFLs, which use 75% less energy than incandescents.

Alternative Energy

May 2007: Launches a solar-power pilot, installing solar arrays on top of 20 stores in California, eliminating 6,000 to 8,000 metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions each year. In April 2009, Walmart expands its partnership with BP Solar to 20 more locations, providing 20% to 30% of their total electricity needs.

Store Design

January 2007: Builds its first high-efficiency pilot store in Kansas City, Missouri. The sixth iteration of the store design, in Sacramento, is 30% more efficient than traditional supercenters, thanks to daylight-harvesting systems, LED-lit display cases, evaporative-cooling and radiant-flooring technologies, and detailed energy-management systems.

Reusable Bags

September 2008: Commits to reduce its global plastic shopping-bag waste by 33% over five years (that's 9 billion bags). The next month, it introduces a 50-cent reusable shopping bag in U.S. stores. By the end of the first year, it had used 2.5 billion fewer bags.

Supply Chain

July 2009: Announces its sustainability initiative to track the life cycle of every product it sells, measuring it on water use, greenhouse-gas emissions, and fair labor practices. Walmart is now hosting industry-by-industry meetings to debate what this consumer label will look like. WHEN FOUNDED 1962 HEADQUARTERS CEO Bentonville, AR Michael Duke NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 2,100,000

2 of 12 By Ariel Schwartz on January 26, 2010

High-Efficiency Refrigeration Unit

All 12 of Walmart's high-efficiency pilot stores feature this massive roof-mounted refrigeration unit, which uses a closed-loop system to increase energy efficiency and reduce overall refrigerant charge by 90%. The unit also reclaims waste heat to provide hot water in restroom and kitchen areas. There's still a long way to go before this high-efficiency unit is rolled out in all Walmart

locations--there are over 2,300 supercenters in the U.S. But nationwide, 70% of hot water used in Walmart and Sam's Club stores is generated using waste heat from refrigeration.

ArvinMeritor Diesel-Electric Hybrid Truck

This dual-mode diesel-electric hybrid truck is, according to Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg, the only Class 8 hybrid in existence. The ArvinMeritor hybrid has both mechanical and electrical propulsion systems. The electric motor drive is used when the vehicle is operating under 48 mph. Once the truck goes faster, the mechanical propulsion system kicks in to help with the electric motor until it reaches highway speeds, when the truck goes into pure mechanical mode. The electrical system steps up to provide additional power during hill climbing. In addition to its work at highway speeds, the engine also charges an on-board energy storage system that provides power to the electric motor when demand is high. Walmart hopes to roll out the truck to its fleets--a move that could ultimately help the company increase its fleet efficiency by up to 25%.

HP Pavilion Packaging
Walmart recently launched a design challenge to its consumer electronics suppliers: create packaging that attracts consumers and reduces environmental impact at the same time. HP won the challenge for its Pavilion dv6929 Entertainment Notebook, a model available exclusively at Walmart and Sam's Club. The innovative packaging replaces Styrofoam and cardboard with a protective messenger bag made entirely out of recycled materials. HP's design cut down on product packaging by 97%, and now the company can ship three laptops to a box. It's a boon for HP and Walmart--the electronics supplier saves cash on packaging, and Walmart gets to say that it is the exclusive retailer of HP's ultra-green laptop.

Biodiesel Truck
Speaking of trucks, Walmart plans to test 15 Class 8 trucks in the Phoenix, Arizona area--they run on reclaimed grease fuel made out of waste brown cooking grease extracted from Walmart stores. So instead of clogging up drains, the grease goes to good use. According to spokesperson Lundberg, the trucks "provide Walmart the opportunity to develop a closed loop solution for the waste cooking grease it generates in its stores and Sams Club locations." That, and the trucks could ultimately increase Walmart's fleet efficiency by up to 2%.

Love, Earth Jewelry

The Love, Earth line of jewelry, sold exclusively at Walmart and Sam's Club, features a tag that allows consumers to trace the jewelry to its mine of origin. Consumers can go to the Love Earth Web site, type in the tag number, and receive information on where the metal in the jewelry came from before landing in a retail store. By the end of the year, Walmart is aiming for 10% of

its jewelry to achieve the company's sustainability criteria and standards. Whether those standards are high enough, however, is still in question. Australian mining company Rio Tinto, one of the companies involved in the Love, Earth line, has been blamedfor environmental destruction and crimes against humanity resulting from a military blockade motivated by civilian resistance to one of its mines.

The Energy Efficiency Aisle

Walmart probably isn't at the top of most people's lists for locally-grown produce, but the company partners with hundreds of growers across the U.S. as part of its "Locally Grown at Walmart" program. It's a project that has saved the company lots of cash. The stores used to source peaches from only a few suppliers, for example. Now Walmart buys over 12 million pounds of peaches from 18 different states--a change that has saved 672,000 food miles and 112,000 gallons of diesel fuel. The total freight and gasoline savings combined equal more than $1.4 million. And that's just for peaches.

Santa Ana Solar Panels

The 3,564 solar panels on top of Walmart's Santa Ana, CA store provide between 20% and 30% of all energy needed by the facility. Walmart currently has 29 facilities with solar panels--27 in California and 2 in Hawaii. "We do a power purchase agreement with vendors," Lundberg explained. "They own and do maintenance on panels and we just buy the power. We can get power for at or below what we'd pay for traditional energy."