“More than ever, we know that our goal to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy is the right goal, and we know that marrying up renewables with energy efficiency is especially powerful: for our customers, for our shareholders and for our grandchildren’s future." – Mike Duke, former president and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Walmart envisions a world where people don’t have to choose between energy they can afford and energy that’s good for communities and the planet. Global energy predictions indicate costs could increase twice as fast as our anticipated store and club growth. Finding cleaner and more affordable energy is vital to everyday low cost.
In April 2013, we announced two commitments to help us advance closer to our aspirational goal to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy.
These commitments are better for communities and the environment. The amount of renewable energy we’ll add over the next six years will be enough to power every household in Austin, Texas, for more than a year (at current rate of consumption). That’s changing our usage to cleaner energy with every kilowatt hour generated. In combination, we expect these commitments will help us avoid almost 9 million metric tons (MMT) of GHG emissions, the equivalent of taking nearly 1.5 million cars off the road. Lastly, and most importantly, we expect our absolute GHG emissions to hold flat over this decade, despite plans to grow our sales and stores considerably over the same time period.
Scaling renewable energy while accelerating energy efficiency is our vision for a more sustainable world and is the right direction for our business.