Costco Goes Green, Saves Money

Yesterday's Sphere Trending Newsletter was all about ways to go green and save money. (If you don't receive this twice-monthly newsletter and would like to receive your free subscription - email us using the link in the right hand column.)

To keep with the topic of yesterday's publication, today's post is about the retailer Costco making strides to make their company more efficient and environmentally friendly. Here are some excerpts from the article that we enjoyed, or you can read the whole piece here.

"We have been doing these things because they were efficient and bring cost reductions," says Karen Raines, Costco's director of corporate sustainability. "And now we're finding out they're also green."

Energy savings: a top priority:

Operating nearly 400 warehouses in the United States requires a tremendous amount of energy1.9 billion kilowatts last year, to be exact. Several programs reduce energy requirements in the warehouses.

One such small change is producing big results - All new refrigeration, air-conditioning and lighting systems in the buildings are high-efficiency units that minimize energy usage. Older buildings are being upgraded with more efficient equipment. A recent tune-up of lighting and air-conditioning control systems in 350 warehouses reduced energy consumption by about 5 percent.

Reducing waste in the buildings:

Another big source of waste is produce - as much as 1.5 tons a week per warehouse. Costco is testing programs in several buildings to keep this produce out of landfills by paying composting companies to pick it up, for a rate lower than what garbage companies charge. For example, in Palm Springs, California, two warehouses are sending the waste produce to a worm farm, where it is composted into mulch. The trimmings from meat and grease from Costco's rotisserie chickens are also reusable. These wastes have traditionally gone to rendering companies, which make them into animal feed and other products. But now, biofuel producers in some regions have started buying the meat trimmings and chicken grease.

Smart advances in packaging

In many cases, products and their packages can be designed to be greener. For example, by making square plastic milk bottles, 224 gallon-size bottles can now fit on a pallet, compared to 210 round bottles. It doesn't sound like a lot, but spread out to all warehouses, the larger pallet count saves 521 truck trips to the warehouses per year, eliminating fuel usage and exhaust emissions. The same approach is being applied to dozens of products, from laundry detergent to nuts.

To read the rest of this article, visit SEED.