Thanks mudbug. I didn't hear about this development on the news. I hope it is successful and serves as a model for other big chains.

On a related note, last month I read W-Mart is planning on stocking orgaincally grown food.

I have to say I'm not terribly impressed with only 5% of the electricity being generated on-site. Interesting that the solar cells are to be located on the walls (in plain view of the customers) rather than on the roof where the collectors could be angled for optimum solar intake --- and where there is probably sufficient room for enough solar panels to produce the other 95% of electricity needed. And while radiant (floor) heat is to be admired as practical/sensible, hot air blowing through fabric ducts near the ceiling sounds like it's for show, not for use: heat rises so why provide still more hot air above the customer's height? Also, what is to be the method for keeping those dust- (and bacteria, virus, insect) -catching fabric ducts clean? Nup, I suspect those ducts are for showing off, not for any actual benefit of the bodies below -- after all, it's so much easier to point to billowing fabric than to explain about hot water in pipes under the flooring. Not everyone realizes that heated air rises all by itself, which is rather more efficient [and less obvious] than pushing heated air through ducts and downward.

OTOH, kudos for using common sense about shading the parking lot (although I'd love to know the details - this sounds too good to be true). Clapping with a single hand re the permeable paving -- that's been around a long time, so I don't really think a "test" strip is needed - but again, it makes for an obvious item to show off.

Thanks, mudbugtx, for another item to watch! (Not being sarcastic, I'm truly interested in how this all works out in real life.)

I,too,was perplexed by the wall-mounted solar panels. There were several different companies involved so you would think they would use some common sense. From what I could tell on the news, the parking lot will have those huge awnings that you see at large car dealerships. At least it's a step in the right direction.

But, if they used roof mounted solar panels to generate a larger volume of electricity what would they do with all of their deep fryer oil? Recycling deep fat seemed to be the primary innovation.

Why dont they use the oil to make biofuel for their many semi-diesel trucks and leave the solar to the buildings use?! Makes more sense to me. Is this oil from the enclosed Mcdonalds or is it from the deli area?

I saw a solar operated fountain today in the back yard of a home in Bar Harbor. It was a bunch of clay pots laying on their sides feeding water from one level to the next and a solar panel on the bench laying out next to it. Awesome to see it working. I feel compelled to go solar and find things to do and play with to experiment.

lilyrose violet - I've seen those solarized pots in clay, plastic, and copper styles: $$$. I yearned a bit, especially for the copper one, but I'd rather spend my $ on bulbs. Your last sentence made me think DIY. But I figure I'll learn better with a solar fountain *kit* than jumping in without any hands-on knowledge at all - now all I have to do is find the kit!

What are you doing at Wall Mart anyway? The plant nurserys, the grocery stores, hardware stores, and all the other customer friendly hard working independant buissnesses down the street need you now more than ever.
Takes a darn hour to find anything in that place anyway, and the employees seem to brainwashed to help much. I try not to shop anywhere I wouldnt be willing to work at in even the hardest of times. Talk about a horrible enviroment. :-(

dirtworshiper- Actually, the WM I visit is pretty good! Clean store with helpful folks, most of whom speak (or at least understand) American. Yes, some cheapie poor quality items, but mostly the stuff is the same as available in big-name department stores. Last I looked the clerks were making much better than minimum wage, which is more than I can say about the help at several independent businesses 'down the street'. There will be good places to work or shop as well as not-so-good, and I find the business' ownership is no guide to which is which.

That isn't going to stop me from feeling sarcastic at *any* business which puts on a green face (or wall as the case may be) but doesn't exhibit the sense to do enough research to make the green viable - and apparently thinks no one is going to notice.

dirtworshiper, I've never been to a W-mart. Even if they built a greenwashed store stocked with organic goods in my area, I wouldn't go.

dirtworshiper-I didn't say I went to that Wal-mart. It was a story on the local news. That particular store is an hour away from where I live. I do however go to the one less than a mile from my house because it's the only store within 10 miles and I believe wasting all that fuel to get the same thing 10 miles down the road is far worse than shopping at Wal-Mart. I also have several friends that work there and they don't seem to be too upset by their working conditions. Like any situation, when you make friends with the employees, they tend to be much more helpful.

That really seems interesting about the "green" w-mart. Althea, I didn't know there was anyone left in the States who had never been to W-mart. We view it as a dirty word here at our house as well. Here in Pensacola, we can't get over the fact that we now have no fewer than 5 (I think that's right) Super W-Mart's with another on the way. That puts our house five minutes from a Super in either direction! What's that about? Wish someone else had gotten there first...

Its hard for me to find a line between praising wall mart for its incredibley successfull manipulation of capitalism and loathing them for pointing out its many flaws.
Even if wall mart becomes more enviromentally friendly it will not make up for bieng the diversity killing machine that it is.
Megalomania is a common trait in humans.Always wanting to be more influential; dreaming of becomeing God.

High five bekados. Sorry to hear you are surrounded by WMarts. If their future performance can be predicted by past actions, you may someday soon be surrounded by abandonded WMarts as they move to nearby undeveloped areas, leaving the empty store & lot to further diminish environmental quality.

I agree, dirtworshiper. This new patina doesn't make up for their past and since they only have two of these "green" stores planned, the other few thousand they are building each year outweigh any gains made by one or two.

A new watch group was formed in April of this year. It is a good site to review the history and current news about WMart.

Here is a link that might be useful: walmartwatch

This OCA article seemed appropriate to this conversation, so I'll tack it on.

Here is a link that might be useful: eco-chumps