Office Depot Earns Title As First
Sustainable Development reports that Office Depot has won recognition from the Environmental Protection Agency as the first general retailer to reduce energy consumption by more than 20 percent.
What this means is that Office Depot has made it to a spot on the list of Energy Star Leaders for successfully reducing its energy usage and carbon emission levels by 27.5 percent, at 1,123 sites.
This is significant because it is yet another case of can-do, which might lead other retailers to start thinking about ways they, too, can save costs and improve their company's image.
How did Home Depot save energy and reduce carbon emissions simultaneously?
A few of the measures include upgrading existing energy management systems to conserve more energy by using advanced HVAC systems throughout its building portfolio.
The company also revamped its lighting systems completely to adopt low energy lighting alternatives. To that they added solar panels, skylights and installation of motion detectors for lighting to further enhance their savings in energy consumption. After all, why pay for artificial lighting that consumes electricity when natural light works just as well? Sure there are overcast days and employees work well into the evening after sunset, but while the sun shines, being able to put mother nature to work directly saves money.
The good news is that none of these energy-saving measures are cost-forbidding for any retailer with robust annual profits. Nor is any of the technology Home Depot uses all that new. Home Depot simply saw the obvious: investing in better infrastructure lowers the company operating and management costs and increases the company's ethos in a marketplace that's becoming more and more eco-sensitive.
Let's hope that other retailers will follow suit. After all, if you run a business, big or small, why would you allow your business model to hemorrhage funds because, say, you're still using the good old incandescent light bulbs?
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