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Sam's Club Workers See The Light

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By JAMIE PILARCZYK, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 31, 2007

SOUTH TAMPA - Sam's Club employees are seeing green. As participants in a pilot project, they are measuring their fossil fuel consumption and taking steps to make a difference.

The second phase of the company's Personal Sustainability Practices program, the pilot project is presented by environmental advocate Roberta Fernandez and her Planet Partnership. Participants are asked to take stock of their energy use and find ways to cut consumption.

'I left the light on longer and didn't change my bulbs. I didn't see the importance of that until now,' said Jeremiah Otero, business office team leader for the South Tampa Sam's Club.

He said Fernandez's training session Oct. 18 for Sam's Club managers opened his eyes to the effects of global warming.

'It takes education,' Otero said.

Fernandez, a Beach Park resident who runs the Environmental Advocacy consultancy group and is a member of Mayor Pam Iorio's Environmental Roundtable, suggests tips such as converting to compact fluorescent light bulbs, raising home thermostats in the summer and lowering them in the winter, and doing laundry with cold water instead of hot.

The South Dale Mabry Highway store, one of 12 in the company's Southwest Florida district stretching from New Port Richey to Naples and from the Gulf of Mexico to Brandon, began the program's first phase by providing recycling bins for paper, glass and plastic in the store.

About 90 percent of the store's 200 or so employees participated in the voluntary program, officials said.

'We are making sure things are better for the next generation,' Otero said.

He said they are rolling out the second phase. Last week, the store had 40 percent participation but anticipated having almost 75 percent by next week, its deadline with Fernandez, who will compile the results and send them to the company's national office.

'It's going to be exciting to see what this new phase will do for us,' said Leslie Laney, the district's sustainability captain.

She said the sustainability program was launched in 2006 and, if successful, could spread to Sam's Clubs worldwide.

Laney said 60 percent of the district's 2,500 employees have participated in the program.

Michael Peel, the Southwest Florida manager, said he was touched by Fernandez's presentation.

'This is important, not only as a company but as human beings,' Peel said. 'I want us to understand we are on the ground floor of what we can do to not just change our market but change our company.'

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 835-2114 or jpilarczyk@tampatrib.com.

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