Wal-Mart says its California, Texas facilities have secured positions among the top three companies on four U.S. EPA Green Power Partnership Lists, in recognition of company's commitment to on-site renewable energy

Cindy Allen

Cindy Allen

BENTONVILLE, Arkansas , January 31, 2012 () – Walmart announced today that its facilities in California and Texas have secured positions among the top three companies, on four separate U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Power Partnership lists.

As a result of significant work in 2011 to continue our commitment to renewable energy through on-site energy, such as solar and wind, and green power purchases, Walmart’s California and Texas facilities secured a spot among the top three on numerous EPA Green Power Partnership lists, including:

NO. 2 purchaser of green power among retailers
NO. 2 among on-site green power generators
NO. 3 among the top 50 largest green power purchasers, up from NO. 15 on this list in October 2011
NO. 3 purchaser of green power among FORTUNE 500 companies

Walmart’s California and Texas facilities are purchasing more than 872 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, which is enough green power to meet 28 percent of the organization's electricity use. Walmart is generating green power from on-site renewable energy systems. In addition, the Walmart facilities are buying a combination of wind power purchases and green power products from Noble Americas Energy Solutions, NextEra Energy Resources, and Duke Energy.

“Investing in renewable energy spurs innovation, provides jobs, helps protect the environment and reduces costs,” said Kim Saylors-Laster, Walmart vice president of energy. “The green power achievements of our facilities in California and Texas support our long-term goal of being supplied by 100 percent renewable energy, and we will use our success in these regions as a model to expand our commitment to renewable energy throughout our operations.”

The EPA National Top Partner lists highlight America's largest green power purchasers quarterly based on annual voluntary purchases through January 5, 2012. The EPA defines green power as electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro.

“Walmart is demonstrating their commitment to reducing their environmental impacts by greatly increasing their purchase of renewable energy," said Blaine Collison, Director of EPA’s Green Power Partnership. “With these purchases, Walmart is helping to grow the nation’s green power market and showing what a difference businesses can make in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Walmart is implementing a number of green energy projects around the world to reduce its environmental impact.

- Walmart plans to expand its solar portfolio to more than 130 rooftops, comprising 75 percent of its stores, throughout California by the end of 2013. The installations will provide 20 to 30 percent of each facility’s total electric needs and when complete generate up to 70 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy per year – the equivalent of powering more than 5,400 homes.

- Walmart’s purchases of wind energy in Texas provide up to 15 percent of the total energy for more than 360 of our Texas locations. The energy comes from Duke Energy wind farm in Notrees, Texas, and produces electricity at the rate of roughly 226 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) each year, which is equivalent of washing 108 million loads of laundry – enough for every household in Austin, Texas, to wash their clothes for a year.

- In Mexico, Walmart is buying energy from a local wind farm for 348 facilities and has installed solar panels on two facilities.

- In Canada, Walmart is testing geothermal, fuel cells, solar and wind, and is the largest corporate purchaser of low-emission power through a local provider of clean, renewable energy.

“We’ve learned a great deal from our renewable energy programs in California, Hawaii, and Texas, and continue to explore opportunities to expand into additional states and globally,” said Greg Pool Walmart manager of renewable energy.

Learn more about Walmart Sustainability and commitment to renewable energy.

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About Walmart
Walmart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at 10,000 retail units under 69 different banners in 28 countries. With fiscal year 2011 sales of $419 billion, Walmart employs more than 2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://walmartstores.com, and on Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart. Online merchandise sales are available at http://www.walmart.com and http://www.samsclub.com.

About EPA’s Green Power Partnership
The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to buy green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with electricity use. The Partnership currently has more than 1,300 Partner organizations voluntarily purchasing billions of kilowatt-hours of green power annually. Partners include a wide variety of leading organizations such as Fortune 500® companies, small and medium sized businesses, local, state, and federal governments, and colleges and universities. For additional information, please visit http://www.epa.gov/greenpower.

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