Retail giant Walmart has celebrated the World Environment Day by announcing improvements in reducing its impact on environment.
Walmart Asia says it avoided more than 73,000 tons in CO2 emissions through a combination of initiatives. The improvement was primarily driven through the installation of more energy-efficient equipment including retrofitting new glass doors on existing refrigerators and introducing next-generation refrigerators with glass doors, leading to a 30 per cent reduction in energy consumption and avoiding 30,000 tons of CO2 emissions. A second key driver was a US$16 million investment in LED lighting, leading to 33,000 tons in CO2 emissions being avoided.
Reductions in the number of kilometers being driven and fuel consumption were achieved through two key initiatives in China involving large container and co-loading programs employed at seven key distribution centers. These two initiatives led to a reduction of more than seven million kilometers being driven and a 5.3 million liter saving in fuel consumption, as well as 10,800 tons of CO2 emissions being avoided.
In Japan, Walmart is employing innovation in the form of light reflecting tile flooring to enable lower lighting energy usage. In 2013, the tiling was installed in 66 stores, and installations are being made at a further 37 stores in 2014. Through this initiative, the company achieved an 11 per cent reduction in electricity usage.
Walmart Japan has also reduced water consumption by 10 per cent as a result of among other things, defrosting fish at room temperature and utilizing low-flow showerheads.
In addition to energy consumption reductions in a number of its wholesale stores, Walmart India has installed zero waste sewage treatment plants in 12 of its stores. The output makes use of recycled water for Heat Ventilation Air Conditioning systems, gardening and toilets.
“Our associates consistently demonstrate innovation in their daily work in order to achieve improvements that ultimately benefit the environment and simultaneously enable us to reduce operational costs to be able to deliver everyday low prices,” said Greg Foran, CEO and president of Walmart Asia.
In Asia, Walmart currently operates more than 850 stores in China, India and Japan, serving 25 million customers every week.
