The Professional Retail Store Maintenance Association, (PRSM), the authority on retail, multi-site facilities management, announced JCPenney received its 2015 Innovation in Sustainability Award at PRSM2015 National Conference.

Nominated by PRSM Members in the Innovative Solutions category, JCPenney was recognized for its comprehensive effort to integrate corporate sustainability and drive results through energy conservation, recycling and waste, and logistics management. The sustainability efforts of JCPenney date back to 1991, and have been continually reinforced by a variety of successful energy saving and conservation initiatives.

JCPenney’s efforts gained national attention in 2007 when it became the first retail company to earn the ENERGY STAR rating for one of its stores. Today, JCPenney has received ENERGY STAR certification at more than 600 retail stores, one supply chain facility and its home office.

Additionally, in 2009, JCPenney set a goal of reducing energy consumption 20 percent by 2015. The initiative is based on an aggressive plan of lighting retrofits, deployment of energy management sytems, use of renewable energy and enhanced store operations that empower general managers to monitor energy performance.

To help achieve its goals at the store level, JCPenney associates have access to an online “energy center” that provides consumption data for each store. Individual store data, viewed in comparison to retail store benchmarks from ENERGY STAR, help store operations take corrective action to reduce energy usage or address problems as soon as they occur.

JCPenney’s recent accomplishments, in 2014, include:
 • Reducing energy consumption over 17% per square foot over the last five years.
 • Removing all remaining T12 light fixtures in the stores with an expected reduction of 3,600,000 kWh per year.
 • Installing energy management systems in 50 stores with an expected reduction of 1,837,955 kWh per year.
 • Certification of 103 store locations with the ENERGY STAR label.

“JCPenney has a strong legacy of conservation, and we’re proud to be recognized by PRSM for our ongoing commitment to the environment and energy savings,” said Katheryn Burchett, SVP of real estate and property development at JCPenney.