Target
At a Glance
Industry
Retail and Apparel
Project Type
Commercial Energy Efficiency
Year
2011
Location
Minneapolis, MN
Summary
Neal Tsay helped Target boost its bottom line while meeting ENERGY STAR eligibility requirements.
Goals
Neal Tsay spent his summer in Minneapolis as an EDF Climate Corps fellow at Target Corporation, a retailer with 1,762 stores in the United States. He was tasked with developing a roadmap to help Target meet its public commitment to earn the ENERGY STAR for 75 percent of its U.S. buildings by 2016 and improving energy efficiency in bottom performing stores.
Solutions
Tsay analyzed Target’s current involvement in the ENERGY STAR program and identified process improvement opportunities to significantly increase certifications. He also developed a plan to prioritize energy efficiency projects in development or under consideration, and optimize their deployment to maximize gains in ENERGY STAR eligibility. This set of projects emphasized energy efficiency for SuperTarget stores and included improvements to lighting, HVAC, and refrigeration systems designed to improve a store’s ENERGY STAR rating by up to 20 percent.
Potential Impact
In total, the identified projects, if deployed across all Target stores in the United States, could save over 84 million kWh per year, eliminate over 50,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent, and generate several million dollars in annual energy savings.