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Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Bentonville, AR
(479) 273-4000
www.walmartstores.com
The master of big-box and the world’s largest retailer is always looking to fuel its global expansion. Over the next 5 years, Wal-Mart plans to hire an additional 800,000 workers worldwide; this year, as much as 55 million square feet - and that’s just domestically - will be added to its existing 530 million-square-foot portfolio. The bigger news, however, is the company’s unveiling of a new store outside of Dallas that could revolutionize how it builds and powers its stores. The experimental design, an industry first among Wal-Mart’s competitors, combines a host of renewable energy technologies, including numerous solar PV arrays, two small wind turbines, a bio-fuel boiler to recycle and burn recovered oil from store operations, and a nearly endless list of energy-saving and sustainable design principles.
