Sept. 10, 2020
By Cindi Marsiglio, Senior Vice President, Corporate Real Estate, Design and Construction, Walmart
As we consider Walmart’s new campus, we have spent a lot of time thinking about the things associates need in order to do their best work – natural light, flexible workspaces and convenient access to coffee, to name a few. We’re also doing a lot of thinking about what’s best for the planet and the next generation, so I wanted to share a bit about how we plan to make the new campus more sustainable.
If you live in Bentonville, you have probably noticed a lot of demolition lately, specifically piles of concrete and other building materials around town. One thing you might not realize is over 95% of the demolished materials will be diverted from landfills. How? Here are a few examples:
- Concrete can be repurposed for other building projects, such as forming the base material for a parking lot.
- Structural steel will be melted and repurposed.
- Even the Freon used for the heating and cooling systems can be extracted and put in a refrigeration bank for later use.
These are just a few of the ways we are working to prevent waste and maintain an EDLC approach to building the campus of the future.
As we consider the design and functionality of the new campus, we also focused on preserving the innate environmental qualities of the area. As Dan Bartlett shared previously, the campus will showcase thousands of native trees, shrubs and grasses. These will not only serve to provide habitat for wildlife and shade paths and bike trails but also help to reconnect associates with nature. We want the next generation of associates to appreciate the natural beauty of Northwest Arkansas as much as we do.
We’ve been working for years to be a more sustainable company, and we want our new home to reflect that. By recycling what we can in the building process and maintaining the natural beauty of the area, we are working to create a new home we can all be proud of.
