How Wal-Mart is saving millions with clean tech

The Cleantech Forum that took place in Toronto this week had an interesting guest--Rand Waddoups, senior director of corporate strategy and sustainability at Wal-Mart, who regaled the audience with a pretty interesting array of facts and figures on the retailer's green push, according to Cleantech's news site.

Wal-Mart started to revamp its practices and become more green two years ago. The campaign revolves around good public relations, but also cutting costs. When you managed millions of square feet of retail space, small changes add up.

Some of the results:

The company is saving $1 million a year on energy costs by removing light bulbs from employee coke machines.

Another $10 million a year got saved by more aggressively recycling cardboard and plastic. Overall, Wal-Mart thinks it can turn the 100 million tons of solid waste it produces a year into a profit center.

Another $2.6 million gets saved by putting low-lead LEDs in freezers instead of florescent bulbs. That swap alone cuts down 35 million pounds of carbon dioxide.

Fuel efficiency is up 15 percent in its 6,500 fleet of cars.