Kohl’s, Home Depot, Sears honored for energy efficiency efforts

Kohl’s, The Home Depot and Sears Holdings have all been honored with 2016 Energy Star Partner of the Year — Sustained Excellence Awards from the Environmental Protection Agency for leadership in sustainability efforts.



KOHL’S: Kohl’s was recognized for its continued leadership in protecting the environment through superior energy efficiency achievements. It is the fifth consecutive year that the retailer has been recognized with the Energy Star Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award.



An Energy Star member since 1998, Kohl’s achieved a milestone 1,000 Energy Star-certified store locations in 2015, totaling more than 85% of Kohl’s stores nationwide. In 2015 alone, more than 70 Kohl’s stores received certification.



Kohl’s has also set a goal through the Department of Energy Better Buildings Challenge to reduce its energy use in more than 112 million sq. ft. of occupied building space by at least 20% by 2020. At the end of 2014, Kohl’s achieved a 16% reduction in energy usage from a 2008 baseline, and further reduced energy usage by an additional 3.2% in 2015.



HOME DEPOT: The Home Depot was honored for its continued leadership in offering the latest innovations in energy efficient products.



In 2015, The Home Depot helped customers save nearly $701.6 million in annual utility costs, equaling a 4 million metric ton decrease in greenhouse gas emissions through the sale of Energy Star certified products.



This is the ninth year the company has been recognized by EPA for its achievements.



In December, The Home Depot also announced that it had exceeded 2015 sustainability goals, achieving a reduction of energy use in its stores by 30% over 2004 levels – a savings of more than 8 billion kilowatts over 10 years. The original goal set in 2010 was to reduce energy use by 20%.



The retailer continues to implement a number of sustainability enhancements to its stores each year including energy management systems to control all store lighting and HVACs and a fuel cell program that provides up to 85% of the energy that each participating store needs to operate.



SEARS: Sears Holdings was recognized for its continued leadership in protecting our environment through superior energy efficiency achievements. Sears has been an Energy Star partner since 1998.



In 2015, the company's total weather normalized source energy usage decreased by nearly 1 billion kBtu, and the average weather normalized source energy intensity declined to 115.8 kBtu/sq. ft., both 6% reductions compared to 2014.



In addition, Sears Holdings has reduced electricity usage by more than 670 million kWh since 2008; the equivalent of powering 63,000 homes or taking 97,000 cars off the road for one year.