綠色沃爾瑪 Going Green at the Mall

試圖將自己定位為綠色零售商的沃爾瑪(Wal-Mart Stores)，將為加州和夏威夷州的22家分店安裝太陽能面板。沃爾瑪表示，該公司將視此計劃實施結果，決定是否對該公司全美4000多家分店推廣。

In a bid to position itself as a green retailer, Wal-Mart Stores is preparing to install solar panels in 22 of its branches in California and Hawaii. The company says that after evaluating the outcomes of this initial project it will decide whether to extend the initiative to all 4,000 of its stores in the USA. 

在這項計劃中，沃爾瑪將以不增加成本為前提，尋求減少資源浪費並降低公司對環境傷害。該零售商誓言，該公司全美分店未來將全部改採替代能源，以期在3年內將分店消耗在包裝上的資源浪費減少25%，並在10年內將卡車燃料的使用效率提升一倍。

The objective of the Wal-Mart plan is to reduce resource waste and cut down the company’s overall environmental impact, on the premise of not increasing costs, of course. Wal-Mart also hopes to cut down packaging waste by 25% within three years and to double the fuel efficiency of its fleet of trucks (車隊) within ten years. 

儘管太陽能發電較傳統發電昂貴，不過安裝太陽能板在美國可以得到巨額的補助，兩相抵銷之後，利用太陽能發電反而來的便宜。以沃爾瑪即將安裝太陽能面板的22個店家為例，沃爾瑪買下的是太陽能面板所產出的電力。英國石油太陽能公司、SunEdison LLC以及SunPower等供應沃爾瑪太陽能面板的廠商表示，他們安裝面板的成本，最多可獲抵減30％的稅負。

Even though solar electrical generation is more expensive than traditional methods, generous subsidies are available in the USA for the installation of solar panels, and when this is taken into account, the solar option becomes the cheaper one. In the case of Wal-Mart’s solar installation for 22 branches, what the company is in fact buying is the electricity generated by the panels. Meanwhile, the manufacturers of the panels being used in the Wal-Mart project, BP Solar, SunEdison LLC and SunPower, say that they are eligible for tax credits of up to 30% of the costs of the installations. 

替代能源 alternative energy/ substitute power source

資源浪費 resource waste

fossil fuels = petroleum = coal = petrochemical

prerequisite 先修(多用於學校課程)

鉅額補助 generous subsidies

四倍 to quadruple = multiply by 4 = a 4-fold increase in (用於寫作)

a five-fold increase in energy use/ spending/ fuel costs

減少25% to cut waste down to 75% of current volume