Wal-Mart sees green — and sees how it can save money by acting “sustainably”:
So Wal-Mart spent nearly a year working with outside consultants to measure the company’s environmental impact. Fairly quickly, they spotted waste that Wal-Mart’s legendary cost cutters had overlooked.On Kid Connection, its private-label line of toys, for instance, Wal-Mart found that by eliminating excessive packaging, it could save $2.4 million a year in shipping costs, 3,800 trees, and one million barrels of oil.
On its fleet of 7,200 trucks Wal-Mart determined it could save $26 million a year in fuel costs merely by installing auxiliary power units that enable the drivers to keep their cabs warm or cool during mandatory ten-hour breaks from the road. Before that, they’d let the truck engine idle all night, wasting fuel.