Best Buy is to implement a new energy management system across its 1,105 U.S. retail locations, in a move expected to reduce the company's energy costs and carbon output by 15 percent within three years.
The new automated energy management system will be implemented in approximately 300 stores by Jan. 31, with full integration with all U.S. stores by mid-2012, Best Buy says.
The energy savings initiative comes as Best Buy tries to increase its online sales and scale back its retail space, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Best Buy currently spends about $10,000 per month, per U.S. store, on energy costs. The changes should save the company $71 million over six years.
A recent sustainability report shows that the company increased its U.S. recycling of electronics, appliances, cardboard and paper, plastic and metals in fiscal 2011.
All five categories, measured by volume in pounds, increased for the second year in a row. The biggest leap was in recycling of plastic, from 947,000 pounds in FY 2010 to 3.5 million in FY 2011, according to the company's 2011 sustainability report.
