OTTAWA: Wal-Mart stores in Canada will
look to go greener next year, with new outlets opened in 2009 designed to save
30 per cent in energy use, the head of the retail giant's Canadian unit said on
Tuesday.
"We call them Wal-Mart HE -- a high-efficiency prototype,"
Wal-Mart Canada Chief Executive David Cheesewright said in the text of a speech
to a meeting of Ontario cities.
Cheesewright said that later that the
new, greener stores would result in savings of C$25 million ($24 million) over
five years.
The company will achieve the energy savings, compared
with traditional outlets in 2005, by using waste energy from refrigerators to
help heat stores, cutting lighting costs, covering roofs with white membranes to
reflect sunlight and lower summer cooling costs, and reducing the size of the
buildings.
Cheesewright said Wal-Mart continued to pursue three
long-term sustainability goals globally: to produce zero waste, to operate with
100 per cent renewable energy, and to make environmentally preferable products
available.