wal-mart to the rescue
Similarly, in 2000, Chevron started Chevron Energy Solutions to promote energy conservation products. "We don't see a correlation between the price of crude and our customers' interest in running green facilities," said James Davis, the unit's president. For example, Davis said that he counted as clients many universities whose electric bills had not increased, but who wanted to tout their "green campus" to prospective students, faculty, and donors.
The flipside -- avoiding negative publicity -- is an equally powerful motivator. CSI Leasing, which leases personal computers, was worried that discarded equipment would end up leaching chemicals into landfills. So last year, Executive Personal Computers, a CSI subsidiary that sells used computers, added a sideline business: collecting used computers from CSI and others, then stripping them into steel, plastic, and other components to sell as scrap.
Still, the biggest boost to green technologies is the goodwill bonus that environmental responsibility can confer. Wal-Mart, under fire for some labor practices and facing resistance to proposed new stores, is rolling out a program, already at 584 stores, to recycle shrink wraps, shopping bags, and other plastic items that once went to landfills.
Wal-Mart also has experimental stores in McKinney, Texas, and Aurora, Colorado, where it is testing the use of trees and grasses, particularly in parking lots, to absorb carbon dioxide emissions and tainted water; wind and solar energy to generate electricity; use of recycled materials for outdoor pavements; formaldehyde-free store flooring; and ways to recycle construction debris.
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