Belk – Stephanie Judd – 2011

Goals 

Stephanie Judd spent her summer as an EDF Climate Corps fellow in Charlotte, NC creating a plan for energy efficiency investment at Belk, a department store with over 300 locations throughout the South. Judd was tasked with benchmarking Belk’s portfolio of facilities using the EPA Energy Star program and identifying the best way for Belk to move forward on achieving Energy Star qualified stores.

Solutions

After studying the current state of the Belk portfolio according to the Energy Star standard and analyzing the necessary kWh reductions to achieve Energy Star qualification in each store, Judd developed a system of prioritizing stores for energy efficiency improvement and constructed financial models that illustrated the necessary expense and expected energy savings throughout the building portfolio.

Potential Impact

While Belk already works steadily to improve energy efficiency at locations company-wide and is able to identify easy-win projects effectively, Judd created a large-scale strategy and a 5 to 10-year goal that is aggressive, but achievable and ties into the sustainability and carbon footprint reduction strategies of the company. Judd’s recommendations could result in almost a 20 percent reduction in Belk’s carbon footprint, and save the company over $10 million annually in energy costs if the entire project were implemented.