Sustainability

To help customers save water and grow its sales in the process Home Depot will execute a massive customer education initiative later this month.

Home Depot regularly holds in store clinics to arm customers with knowledge to tackle home improvement project and its newest initiative applies that thought process to a less familiar merchandise classification. On Saturday, April 26, every one of Home Depot’s 1,977 U.S. stores will host an hour and a half long “Water Conservation Workshop,” in which 10 home improvement projects will be covered.

Lakewood, Colo. – Natural Grocers Inc. has opened two new stores in Las Cruces, N.M. and Gresham, Ore. The locations are respectively Natural Grocers’ fifth store in New Mexico and seventh store in Oregon.

Natural Grocers stores offer features including a credentialed nutritional health coach, local products, free recyclable boxes and demos, speakers and seminars.

Niwot, Colo. -- Crocs Inc. has opened its first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified store, in Syracuse, N.Y. As detailed in Crocs’ new 2013 sustainability report, the store is certified at the LEED Silver level and features a high-efficiency LED lighting system and low-VOC and sustainable building materials.

First it was signage and then came the freezer case and parking lots. Now Walmart and GE are moving forward with their biggest lighting initiative to date.

The companies announced plans to use GE LED lights in ceiling fixtures in hundreds of stores throughout the U.S., Asia, Latin Amerian and the United Kingdom. The new fixtures use 40% less energy than traditional overhead lighting systems and move Walmart forward on its goal of reducing energy required to power its buildings globally by 20% by 2020. It is Walmart’s largest purchase of GE LED lighting to date.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. is introducing “Made to Matter – Handpicked by Target.” The collection brings together 17 natural, organic and sustainable brands to introduce new products.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart, a pioneer in the use of LED lighting in its freezer cases and parking lots, is now extending its use of LEDs to the sales floor. The retailer plans to install energy-efficient LED ceiling lighting from GE in its new supercenters in the United States, along with stores in Asia, Latin America, and the United Kingdom.

Target is expanding its sustainable products offering with a new collection called “Made to Matter — Handpicked by Target.”

BJ's Charitable Foundation has donated 70 grants totaling $431,000 to several nonprofit organizations whose goals are to help improve the lives of local residents in the areas surrounding BJ's Wholesale Clubs.

The funds will go toward healthcare, education, hunger prevention and self-sufficiency.