New Wal-Mart Canada stores go greener

A sign marks the entrance of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Rogers, Arkansas June 5, 2008.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Wal-Mart stores in Canada will look to go greener next year, with new outlets opened in 2009 designed to save 30 percent in energy use, the head of the retail giant's Canadian unit said on Tuesday.

"We call them Wal-Mart HE -- a high-efficiency prototype," Wal-Mart Canada Chief Executive David Cheesewright said in the text of a speech to a meeting of Ontario cities.

Cheesewright told Reuters later that the new, greener stores would result in savings of C$25 million ($24 million) over five years.

The company will achieve the energy savings, compared with traditional outlets in 2005, by using waste energy from refrigerators to help heat stores, cutting lighting costs, covering roofs with white membranes to reflect sunlight and lower summer cooling costs, and reducing the size of the buildings.

Cheesewright said Wal-Mart continued to pursue three long-term sustainability goals globally: to produce zero waste, to operate with 100 percent renewable energy, and to make environmentally preferable products available.

($1=$1.04 Canadian)

(Reporting by Randall Palmer; editing by Rob Wilson.)