Entries filed under 'energy'

Honey, We Shrunk the Electric Bill: REI and the Path to Sustainability

When it comes to the environment, can business be part of the solution? Conventional wisdom says that growing a business means increasing environmental and social impacts. More sales must mean more trash to the landfill and burning more coal to make the electricity that keeps our lights on… right?  Maybe not. As a co-op devoted to getting people outdoors, enjoying nature and taking good care of it, REI is out to chart a different future for business. And we're starting to show some ...

Posted by Kevin H on June 29, 2011 6:57 PM & Tagged CSR, Climate Change, MBtu, Stewardship report, carbon emissions, energy, growth and sustainablity | permalink | Comments



REI Cuts Carbon Emissions While Our Business Grows

Last year was a good one for REI. We reduced our greenhouse gas (GHG) impact in 2009 by over 10% even though the co-op grew. In fact, since 2006 our climate impact has gone down by over 22% while our sales have gone up by 23%. That’s a pretty good headline.  Of course the details are more complicated, so we report our GHG emission in REI’s annual stewardship report (which is audited by Climate Counts). Conventional wisdom says that if we grow, we’ll increase our negative impacts, but there’s a ...

Posted by Kevin H on September 20, 2010 2:50 PM & Tagged CSR, Climate Change, GHG, REI stewardship report, carbon emissions, energy, green building, greenhouse gas, growth and sustainablity | permalink | Comments



The Case for Rechargeable Batteries

Answer: 3,000,000,000. Question: How many single-use batteries (aka household batteries or dry cell batteries) are estimated to be sold annually in the United States? That's a big number. It averages to roughly 10 batteries per man, woman and child in the U.S., according to Environment Health and Safety Online, an aggregator of environmental information. When depleted, most wind up in landfills. Interestingly, California requires any battery to be disposed as hazardous waste, even though ...

Posted by T.D. Wood on May 7, 2010 9:22 PM & Tagged AA, AAA, alkaline, batteries, battery, energy, lithium, power, rechargeable and single-use | permalink | Comments