Kroger is well on its way to becoming a greener grocer. First, it is trying to trim waste by teaching employees how to get more bang for their bagging, tied to a campaign called "Less Plastic? Fantastic." This effort, coupled with the sale of reusable bags, has saved Kroger from purchasing about 159 million plastic bags. Generally, those bags cost grocers about half a penny, which means Kroger could have saved up to $795,000.
Kroger has made even more money by saving energy. While it hasn't released an official number, the company says it has pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars since 2000 by reducing overall energy consumption in stores by 30%, shaving off 2 billion kilowatt hours. Most of those savings came from simple measures such as closely monitoring temperatures in stores and refrigerated cases, turning off the lights, and switching to low-energy LED light fixtures. Kroger's size means that those simple efforts go a long way -- the company has 2,458 stores in 31 states.
In the future, Kroger wants to cut even more -- the store has committed to cutting its energy usage by 35%, from 2000 levels, by 2013.
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