Kohl's Greens Up Its Image, and the Timing Couldn't Be Better

(MoneyWatch)  With all that's going on in the economy, the "new normal," price wars, web wars and every other kind of initiative retailers are launching to chase the few dollars frugal consumers are spending, the amount of time, attention and money retailers are spending on sustainability seems amazing.

Yet, it's not surprising because nothing suits a company as much as making a virtue out of a necessity. Ultimately, the pursuit of the frugal consumer and of green shopper amounts to one and the same thing.

To take a case in point, Kohl's (KSS) just announced that, for the second time, the company took the top spot among retailers in the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership quarterly rankings of biggest sustainable power purchasers.

Kohl's also ranks ninth overall in the Green Power Partnership's listing of companies that generate and consume the most green power on-site. Kohl's gets it kudos for the company's solar generation initiative. The company contends it's the world's largest retail host of solar power. It operates 79 locations generating power from their own solar panels in six states, California, Wisconsin, Oregon, Maryland, Connecticut and New Jersey. In a recent major expansion in California, Kohl's touted its solar generation, and certainly that had public relations value in the environmentally conscious Golden State. Kohl's debuted 37 locations in September nationwide with 30 of those in California. Among those was California's 59th solar store, this in Sacramento. So, 59 of the 79 Kohl's solar stores are in sunny California. So far. The company's initial plans call for 100 locations with solar installations.

Yet, Kohl's can enjoy benefits from its environmental program beyond public relations. The company talks about energy efficiency being a goal, but it doesn't much discuss the money savings involved. A couple of inquiries to the company on that subject went unanswered by post time. But investments to cut electrical and other power-generation costs always include bottom line goals, and not all retailers are reluctant to talk the money savings involved.

Saving money is a big topic for Walmart (WMT) and so is sustainability. The company has been launching initiatives big and small developed to help the environment and the corporate bottom line simultaneously. Among the less conspicuous was something Andrew Ruben, Walmart's vp for strategy and sustainability, spoke about awhile back. This initiative equipped the company's more than 7,000 trucks with auxiliary power units that kicked in when the truck normally would idle. Their use in just the initial phase of the program saved about $26 million and that was two years ago.

In August, Walmart opened its latest-generation high-efficiency pilot store in Youngstown, Ohio. The store was designed to be 25 percent more energy efficient than a 2005 baseline Walmart store. Among its green features, the store operates a water-source refrigeration system that also heats and cools the building.

Oh, and by the way, on Nov. 12, Walmart is planning a Global Sustainability Milestone Meeting to discuss its goals of using 100 percent renewable energy, creating zero waste and selling sustainable products. If you don't want to burn the fossil fuel to attend the meeting at the company's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters, you can join in the webcast or Twitter feeds to hear about all the goings on.

Walmart, Kohl's and a lot of other retailers are pushing green programs because they like them and so do their customers. Retailers can take credit for helping the environment even as they fulfill a business imperative in a recessionary economy and cut costs. Because they are making genuine investments in equipment such as solar panels ?€" or windmills as Meijer has done in less sunny but windier-than-California western Michigan -- no one can accuse them Greenwashing, at least effectively. They can't even make snide remarks stick about the retailers only caring about saving money. The recession is rough and worried consumers may not be able to participate in the kind of feel-good activities they once embraced. Charitable giving is down. Yet, sustainability is something folks can continue to support at retail and in their own lives, as turning off lights, driving less, turning in clunkers for cash all represent worthy activities that reduce consumer expenses. So, right now, saving the planet and saving cash are not morally divergent goals for consumers or, by extension, businesses. Snide remarks may be kept to oneself.