(no subject)

[thebitterguy]

Hey! umario! Wal Mart just bought 39,000 Megawatts (is that 39 Gigawatts?) of carbon credits! How does that make you feel?

Comments

Wrong units

[umario.livejournal.com]

They used the wrong units in that article. MalWart is in fact buying 39,000 megawatt-hours (http://www.mississauganews.com/mi/news/story/3460265p-3998730c.html) (or 39,000,000 kWh).

That can't be right - that's the equivalent of having a 2 MW power plant running continuously over the next 3 years. Or buying all of the energy produced by about 10 turbines the size of the Exhibition Place turbine for the same period, but in locations with better wind regimes, that are better suited towards power production.

Do they really use that much electricity? And if so, couldn't they focus on conserving it a bit more? Maybe not - maybe they use that much juice - would make sense if the purchase is for many stores.

It's a start. I won't start shopping there yet. They should focus on some of their other wrongs, too.

Re: Wrong units

[thebitterguy]

I can only imagine how much juice a Wal-Mart store would use.

I mean, lighting it at the brightness required for a retail store (even if they use flourescent lighting, that's a large space), running refrigerators for the foods on the floor (and the foods in the storage area), running AC in the summer and heating it in the winter, etc, etc. Big Box stores are energy HOGS.

I think another article talked about them attempting to conserve more, but that's mostly as a cost-cutting measure. I'm sure if they could heat the stores using the babies of illegal immigrant employees, they would.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

If I said I was concerned over their growing interest in organic produce(pun not intended), would you be surprised?

[thebitterguy]

Mildly, but that's mainly because I didn't know you had an interest in organic farming.

Why is that concerning?