UK’s Walmart Goes Green
Posted by Kelly Smith on Fri, Apr 02, 2010
As
Walmart makes strides towards sustainable business practices in the US, Walmart UK (known as Asda) is also making an effort to implement positive environmental policies. Asda is already subject to more stringent environmental standards since it is based in the UK rather than in the US, but they are working to go above and beyond industry standards.
One of Asda's goals is to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels by 20% before the year 2012. Asda's Head of Corporate Policy for Sustainability & Ethics, Justin Walker-Palin, is proud that Asda was able to reduce carbon usage by 7% from 2007 to 2009. For a few years now, Asda has been calculating their carbon footprint and making that information public as a way to keep themselves accountable and make their environmental efforts transparent.
New Asda stores will use less energy by incorporating sunlight and more natural ventilation systems that don't rely on energy-intensive air conditioning. Eventually, Asda aims to use exclusively renewable energy to power their stores. To this end, they are starting the process of building wind turbines and experimenting with different power options at some of their stores. Asda is also striving to eliminate landfill waste by increasing their reusing and recycling.
In addition to creating sustainable business practices for the corporation, Asda is providing eco-friendly products for the environmentally aware consumer as well. Asda offers store brand organics, store brand fair trade products, and store brand pesticide-free products at reasonable prices. Asda is not associated as strongly with the green movement as some other British chains, but that is changing as sustainability comes to the forefront of Asda's policies.