In McKinney, Texas, and Aurora, Colorado, Wal-Mart has created two shining examples of the way building owners, scientists, engineers, architects, contractors, and landscape designers can work together to create stores that save energy, conserve natural resources, and reduce pollution. These stores are living laboratories, testing experimental technologies and products.

These building experiments not only help us become better environmental citizens, they provide important test sites for the technologies – moving them forward in the marketplace if they are successful. The technologies Wal-Mart is testing today may be used in many buildings in your community in the future.

Our foremost goal for the experimental stores was to focus on technologies and approaches that fit with our mission statement. The mission statement served as the litmus test for every decision made about experimental technologies, products, and processes. Specifically, the experiments had to lead to a store design that improves the comfort of Wal-Mart associates, improves the ability to serve Wal-Mart customers, and reduces Wal-Mart’s use of natural resources.

		For more than a decade, Wal-Mart Stores has examined energy and environmental features. Three stores provided an initial examination. Demonstration Store 1 - Lawrence, Kansas. Wood was chosen as the largest material source, since it could be reused or recycled. The store also has many energy-saving features, including a recycled asphalt parking lot. Demonstration Store 2 - Moore, Oklahoma. The "centerpiece" is a futuristic heating, ventilation and air conditioning system that coordinates space conditioning and dehumidification, ventilation, indoor air quality, heat recovery and refrigeration with reduced energy use. Demonstration Store 3 - City of Industry, California. It has all of the best technologies from the 2 previous stores plus 3 electric car-charging stations and 180 high-performance skylights.

Wal-Mart is committed to the communities it serves. As part of that commitment, we contribute to a variety of programs to help protect the environment through programs like our Acres for American Program, as well as working on many projects that incorporate energy- and resource-saving experimental building technologies and products into our store designs.

As we evaluate our experiences with the new experimental stores, we will share the results and practices with others in the industry, the general public, and government agencies. Based on our experiences with these stores, we will also apply best environmental practices to other Wal-Mart facilities.