March 17, 2008—The National Governors Association (NGA) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., recently announced a new partnership to provide energy audits of state capitol complexes, similar to audits Wal- Mart has performed for several companies.
Under the new “Greening the Capitols” partnership, Wal-Mart will send experts to as many as 20 state capitol complexes throughout 2008 and 2009 with the goal of identifying energy efficiency improvements that will provide a return on investment within five years or other requested time frame.
In addition, the Wal-Mart team will demonstrate the anticipated cost savings and carbon dioxide reductions each state could experience by implementing the recommended improvements. The NGA Center for Best Practices will help identify states for participation and catalog the successes each state experiences.
Wal-Mart says it is sharing lessons learned in its experimental stores that opened in Aurora, Colorado, and McKinney, Texas, in 2005, and in the company’s new supercenters in Romeoville, Illinois (25% more energy efficient than its standard stores) and Bernalillo, New Mexico.
After the states receive their energy audit report, they have the option of asking Wal-Mart to gather bids from interested companies and to facilitate the installation of the recommended technologies.
