Costco Environmental Analysis

COSTCO has always been known as one of the worlds leading companies in sustainability efforts. Last year they released a sustainability report that outlined their current and future efforts regarding this matter. These include warehouse design, sustainable business practices, and an energy program.

First of all, COSTCO plans on redesigning their warehouses. This will entail a few changes, first of all being, 80% recycled material in the steel used, creating 100% recyclable steel. Secondly, the roof design includes over 200 skylights to reduce overall energy needs. A third design aspect is high efficiency restroom fixtures which will save 40% more water than required by industry building standards. COSTCO’s energy plan will include the use of solar panels for electricity as well as vapor recovery systems for use at COSTCO gas stations. All of these, among the numerous other efforts, will help to reduce COSTCO’s carbon footprint.

COSCTO places some emphasis on the environmental aspect of the triple bottom line, but much more on people and profit. You can see this in their code of ethics. The second point of their code is “Take Care Of Our Members”. However, there is little to do with environmental issues in this code of ethics.

I disagree with the idea that the COSTCO sustainability effort is an example of “greenwashing.” I believe their efforts are genuine and can’t be faked. For example, their transition to solar power and energy saver light bulbs will make a large difference on their energy consumption.