Wal-Mart to Open ‘Green’ Store
Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will open a prototype superstore in Texas today that relies heavily on “green” technology as an experiment in resource and energy conservation.
The project in the Dallas suburb of McKinney uses environmentally friendly features such as electricity-generating photovoltaic cells in the skylights. The store will collect rainwater from the roof and parking lot to tend the landscaping year-round.
Wal-Mart will open a second green store in Aurora, Colo., in October as part of a three-year test. Results from the experiments will be measured by independent auditors from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Natural Renewal Energy Laboratory, who will make their findings public, said Don Moseley, head of experimental projects for Wal-Mart.
“A number of other big-box retailers are looking at this,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president of the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council. “The No. 1 rule in retail is to get people in and have them hang around for a while. In green spaces you have a sense of well-being.”
In charge of design of the two Wal-Mart stores is LPA, an Irvine architecture firm specializing in green projects. LPA also designed an $87-million green office building in Torrance for Toyota Motor Corp. two years ago.
The retailer will incorporate the most successful features into future Wal-Mart stores. The energy-efficient light emitting diode, or LED, lighting found in the Texas store will be used in other locations, Moseley said.
His favorite experiment is the radiant floor heating installed in some areas including the sometimes chilly maintenance pits in the garage where mechanics service customers’ cars. Tubes below the concrete floor can fill with water heated by burning waste oil from the garage and cooking oil from the store’s food service operations.
Other experiments include heat generated by refrigeration equipment being captured and used to heat the water in restroom sinks, said LPA President Dan Heinfeld. Fabric ducts slung 11 feet high will evenly distribute cool air in a manner expected to save enough electricity to power 70 homes. Condensation from air conditioners will be collected for plant irrigation.
Wal-Mart won’t say how much the new stores cost to build, though the various experimental design elements did raise the price of the Texas store, Moseley acknowledged.
Overall, the two green stores will get about 8% of their energy from solar and wind power. Those technologies will save about 300,000 kilowatts of electricity a year, the retailer said.
Wal-Mart’s move into green development may be in part an effort to polish its image, said retail consultant Burt P. Flickinger. “Wal-Mart has a big black eye with American consumers” for its wage and benefit levels and aggressive expansion program, he said. “It could be an inspiring initiative, but it’s too soon to tell.”
In 2001 Wal-Mart agreed to pay a $1-million fine and establish a $4.5-million environmental-management program to settle federal charges that it violated Clean Water Act storm discharge rules at 17 sites in four states. Wal-Mart said the green stores weren’t connected to the environmental settlements.
Wal-Mart shares closed Tuesday at $49.76, down 23 cents.
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Bloomberg News was used in compiling this report.
