Best Buy (BBY) to start building 'green' store locations

Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) just can't let a week go by without announcing some corporate initiative that grabs headlines. Let's add one to the top of the pile: the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. says that is wants to begin building new stores using "green" concepts soon. These new stores will use environmentally friendly energy strategies to cut down on power consumption, with a goal of cutting energy use in these stores by a third. Stores with the new design would be opened sometime in the second half of 2008, according to Best Buy officials.

That's no small amount. A 33% reduction in power consumption for large-format retail stores not only will save Best Buy money over the long term, but will help the under-strain power grids in parts of the U.S. Best Buy is not the only retailer to have a "green" store strategy. General merchandise retailers Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) also have in-place green strategies as well, from in-store lighting to eco-friendly packaging requirements from its suppliers.

Where is Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) when a good piece of PR is needed, though? Nowhere to be found, apparently. Circuit City is trying to imitate Best Buy's success but has not come close to exactly replicating it. If the retailer wanted some good press coverage for a change, it could replicate Best Buy's strategy here and look into energy-efficient lighting, buildings made from recycled materials (if it ever opens new stores), and new day-lighting systems that don't waste energy during daytime hours. But then again, Best Buy is making adjustments to existing stores to bring them more into the "green." Can Circuit City follow behind that one? Mr. Schoonover should consider it.