Target and Walmart are racing to make a push in an effort to implement solar panels into their store portfolios. Target has roughly 1,855 stores and is aiming to have approx. 25% of their units powered by renewable energy by the end of 2020. Walmart has committed to using 100% renewable energy and plans to have 50% of the stores within their portfolio completed by 2025. This an admirable commitment and one of which will a large investment into renewable energy to green up their act!

In college, while studying real estate at FSU, we did case studies on developing and building LEED certified projects. For those of you that are not familiar with LEED, it stands for leadership in energy and environmental design and is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. When I would ask retail developers or contractors why they would not build to a LEED standard back in 2011, it all came down to cost vs. reward. Yes, they advised that there was a savings on operating costs and efficiencies, but the initial investment did not make financial sense over the hold period. Today, more and more retail developers and shopping center owners are investing in or converting their projects to a LEED standard. What projects or developments have you worked on that have had a renewable energy component or have attained a LEED designation?

http://money.com/money/5657573/walmart-target-solar-panels-stores-clean-energy/