Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, will use some energy-saving methods at U.S. stores after testing them for a year.
Wal-Mart will add LED lighting to freezer cases in U.S. Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores beginning in January, the company said in a statement today. The lights use less energy, radiate less heat and last longer, the company said.
Wal-Mart opened experimental stores in Texas and Colorado last year to evaluate energy and waste-saving technologies such as using old cooking and motor oil to help heat stores. The company also tested a combination of the industrial byproducts fly-ash and slag with concrete to cut down on construction materials.
So far, the new concrete mixes “are holding up well at the experimental stores” and can be used for construction, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart said. The company said it is still evaluating other techniques such as use of wind turbines to power stores. Mechanical problems hampered the use of turbines for power, the company said.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is studying the Colorado store, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory will monitor the Texas location for two more years after tracking them for a year, Wal-Mart said.
