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Walmart has enough roof space for every American to sit down on, but they're only using a fraction of that potential to generate solar energy. Sign here to tell Walmart to get serious about solar, and save our climate.
Friend,
Walmart has claimed for years that they are environmental leaders. But Walmart's dirty secret is that despite promising almost a decade ago to get 100 percent of their power from clean sources, as many of their competitors already do, Walmart still only gets 3 percent of their energy from renewable sources like solar. In fact, Walmart's U.S. stores mostly rely on dirty coal power -- 4.2 million tons of the stuff a year.1
And it's not like they don't have the room for a few solar panels. According to our friends at the Institute for Local Self Reliance, Walmart has 2.7 square feet of store space for every American -- that's over 800 MILLION square feet. And yet they're generating less than 1/3 as much solar power as competitors like Kohls.2 That's why we've been calling on Walmart to clean up their act, by dumping dirty coal for clean green solar power.
Sign here to tell Walmart to drop the greenwashing, and get serious about solar now!
Walmart earned over $475 billion last year and was named the #1 company atop the Fortune 500 list.3 So we know they can afford to go solar. What's more, Walmart knows that they have a responsibility to the planet. In their most recent Global Responsibility Report, they boasted that they are the "largest on-site green power generator in the U.S.”4
But here’s the problem: Walmart's energy supply isn't any greener than your average company. In fact they're a lot dirtier than the average retail chain. It’s only because they use SO MUCH electricity to light and air condition all those super stores, that even their piddling three percent investment in solar and clean sources adds up to a lot of watts.
With all those flat roofs and wide-open parking lots, Walmart could be a major developer of solar energy. In fact, Walmart could meet it’s entire promise to get 100 percent of its power from clean sources just by putting solar on all their U.S. stores and investing in smart purchase contracts.
But Walmart’s been stalling for almost 10 years. We need to send them a wake up call: It’s time to get serious about solar and meeting their promise to get 100 percent of their power from clean sources NOW.
Sign here to tell Walmart it’s time to go solar!
Thanks,
Drew and the put-solar-on-it crew at Environmental Action
1 - Stacy Mitchell, New Report: Walmart’s Dirty Energy Secret, ILSR, Nov 20, 2014
2 - Top 30 Retail Green Power Partners, US EPA, April 27, 2015
- Map stats based on an estimated 320+ million Americans from US census bureau
3 - Fortune Magazine, Fortune 500, 2014
4 -Walmart 2013 Global Responsibility Report |
