Sustainability

Macy's chose Earth Day to give an update on its ongoing solar power deployments.

The retailer, in a 10-year partnership with SunPower Corp., has deployed SunPower solar systems at, or planned for, 71 Macy's and Bloomingdale's locations in 10 states, totaling approximately 39 megawatts.

Fifty SunPower systems are operating to date, and the company is contracted to install its technology at 21 additional Macy's and Bloomingdale's facilities this year.

Energy that comes from an unlikely source will help power a distributed center operated by Stop & Shop Supermarket Company.

The retailer has opened a “Green Energy Facility,” in Freetown, Massachusetts, that will convert inedible food from Stop & Shop’s 212 New England stores into energy that will help power the company's distribution center in Freetown.

Regency Centers, in partnership with SoCore Energy and several of its retail partners, is outfitting two of its shopping centers in California with solar photovoltaic systems.

Regency announced the installation of over 750 KW of rooftop solar photovoltaic systems at Persimmon Place, in Dublin, and East Washington Place in Petaluma. Combined, the systems include approximately 2,500 modules and are expected to produce over 1,200,000 kilowatt hours of clean and renewable electricity each year.

Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Schultz recently touched down at Target Corp. headquarters in Minneapolis as part of Target’s series of “innovation speakers.” “With Starbucks, I dreamed of building a national brand and different kind of company, achieving balance between profit and conscience, bringing people along on the journey, and impacting the communities we serve,” Schultz said. “The kind of company my parents never got the chance to work for.

Conlego is the name of a new consulting practice established by several former Target executives who hope to leverage their experience to help companies create value through negotiations, partnership and corporate social responsibility.

The name Conlego means “unifying people for a common purpose,” according to the pair of former Target executives who founded the firm on the premise that more value can be created by finding collaborative ways of working together on solving the business and social challenges every organizations faces.

Best Buy is ditching the signature Volkswagen Beetle it has used to transport its tech support arm, the Geek Squad, over the past 14 years in favor of Toyota’s Prius c hybrid cars.

In addition to saving money on gasoline, switching to the hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle will produce about half the emissions of the previous Geekmobile over the life of the vehicle, in line with Best Buy’s commitment to reduce its own carbon emissions by 45% by 2020.

Arby’s Restaurant Group has exceeded its own goal for energy reduction, and also cut its water consumption, for a combined energy-related savings of $20.4 million from 2011-2015.

The company announced that as of Dec. 31, 2015, it reached 15.2% total energy reduction per company-owned restaurant from a 2011 baseline, exceeding the “15 Percent By 2015” energy savings goal the company set for itself in 2012.

In addition, Arby’s achieved an 8.6% reduction in water consumption per company-owned restaurant from 2011-2015.

Pilot Flying J, the largest operator of travel centers in North America, is upgrading the indoor and outdoor lighting at select locations.

The company has entered into an agreement with Cree for an LED retrofit of interior and exterior lighting, to include parking lot canopies, downlights and area luminaires for various new and existing travel centers. The program is underway, with retrofits completed at nearly 100 Pilot and Flying J Travel Centers to-date and plans to roll out dozens of new stores annually over the next five years.

Two major sustainability initiatives from H&M begin this month as the fast fashion retailer debuts a new line from Conscious Commerce co-founders Olivia Wilde and Barbara Burchfield and kicks off an apparel recycling effort.

The H&M Conscious Exclusive collection from Wilde and Burchfield will be available online at hm.com and in 165 stores beginning April 7. Meanwhile, H&M is set to begin is World Recycle Week initiative on April 18 which allows customers who drop off clothes at in-store collections bins to receive a 30% discount coupon.

Just five months after making its Manhattan debut with the opening of its largest restaurant to date, Chick-fil-A has opened a second outpost in the Big Apple.