J.C. Penny to Save Dollars in Energy

From today’s HFN:

PLANO, Texas–J.C. Penney has set a corporate goal to reduce the energy consumption at its facilities by 20 percent per gross square foot by 2015.

In a statement, the department-store retailer said it will reach this goal by improvements in energy efficiency and by accelerating its company culture, which advocates and practices conservation. J.C. Penney has invested more than $130 million over the past 10 years on energy-efficiency technologies in its stores and logistics centers. This expenditure resulted in a year-over-year elimination of about 80 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions in 2009 alone, the statement said.

Other aspects of its conservation efforts include EMPowered, a program that encourages and educates J.C. Penney employees to seek new ways to save energy. In addition, the company has established a goal to obtain 25 percent of its total operating power from renewable resources over time. The latter initiative involves the use of rooftop solar-power systems at stores in California and New Jersey (with others planned for this year) and the hosting of Architectural Wind turbines at its logistics center in Manchester, Conn.