Through the DOE’s Better Buildings Challenge, Macy’s has committed to reduce its energy use by 20 percent across its entire building portfolio by 2020. At Macy’s Better Buildings Challenge showcase project in San Antonio, Texas, the retailer has reduced the store’s electricity use by 30 percent by replacing over 1,100 accent lights with LED lamps and installing a high-efficiency, single-ply membrane, cool, white roof. The store saved an additional 10 percent by replacing a multi-stack chiller with a new, super-efficient chiller, resulting in a total reduction in energy use of 40 percent.
To date, Macy’s has already achieved 16 percent energy savings across its 170 million square feet of buildings nationwide by installing a centralized real-time energy management system, which provides a far more detailed view of energy use at each store than monthly utility bills.
At its online fulfillment center in Cheshire, Connecticut, Macy’s installed solid oxide fuel cell technology to produce electricity on-site.