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Energy

Limited Brands joined the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Climate Leaders Program in September 2008. We officially established our baseline inventory in 2009 and set our greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal in June of 2010. We are committed to reducing our total GHG emissions through projects that improve efficiency and conserve energy and fossil fuels.

Since 2007, Limited Brands has been participating in the Carbon Disclosure Project by completing and submitting the annual corporate climate change questionnaire, the format in which participants document the carbon generated by their activities and operations. You can find Limited Brands' most recent response to the Carbon Disclosure Project at: www.cdproject.net.

In an effort to reduce our energy consumption, Limited Brands has been rolling out numerous energy-efficient projects which have significant energy savings and pollution reduction associated with them. The lighting projects alone reduce our store electricity consumption by 50,000,000 kWh annually and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 35,000 metric tons.

Our efforts in stores:

• In 2009, we replaced more than 42,000 higher wattage light bulbs in approximately 900 stores with lower wattage, more efficient bulbs.
• Also in 2009, we adjusted the temperature set point in a large number of stores to reduce air conditioning use during the day and even more so at night. 

Combined with our replacement of bulbs, we expect to reduce our electricity usage by nearly 10,000,000 kWh/year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 7,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

• Building new stores with more efficient lighting technology, including highly-efficient Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH) bulbs.
• Modifying approximately 900 stores with more efficient lighting bulbs and fixtures.
• Replacing older, less efficient lamps in more than 700 stores with new, more efficient compact fluorescent lamps.

These lighting projects alone reduce our store electricity consumption by 50,000,000 kWh annually and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 35,000 metric tons.

• Proactively replacing aging HVAC units in our stores with newer, more efficient units. The first phase of this project has resulted in the replacement of approximately 125 HVAC units during the past two years - reducing electricity consumption by more than 1,500,000 kWh while cutting carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1,000 metric tons.

Our efforts in home offices and distribution centers:

• In 2009, Limited Brands initiated the process to obtain LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for our Bath and Body Works combined home office and distribution center building. In early 2010, Limited Brands received LEED Silver certification from the USGBC via the Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance (EB O&M) designation.
• Beginning in 2009, initiated a project to increase server virtualization in our servers located within five of our home office and client contact center locations. We anticipate increasing server virtualization by approximately 25 percent year over year spanning a four year timeframe. When the project is complete, we expect annual electricity usage to decrease approximately 27,000 kWh and emissions of carbon dioxide to be reduced approximately 20 metric tons per year.
• Within the last five years, replaced the existing roofs on the two of our distribution centers with newly designed roofing systems. We no have a total of three of these reflective roofs, creating a 15 percent reduction in energy consumption and costs per building. Within the next 5-7 years, we expect to replace two additional roofs with this more efficient roofing product.
• In 2008, replaced the fluorescent lighting fixtures in five of our Columbus, Ohio, based distribution centers with more efficient lighting fixtures. We estimate that this project will reduce annual electricity consumption by nearly 9 million kWh and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by approximately 9,700 metric tons.

Transportation

The movement of freight around the world requires the use of fossil fuels. The use of ocean vessels is the most fuel-efficient means of transporting merchandise from overseas. We work with freight carriers to maximize the use of ocean vessels and minimize the use of air shipment. To complement this effort, we optimize cargo space by fully loading cargo containers bound for the United States.

Limited Brands is committed to:

• Increasing the utilization of our rail service. Rail service utilizes less fuel and produces less air emissions than truck service.
• Utilizing highly efficient trailer stacking techniques to optimize the use of trailer space and reduce the number of trucks and amount of energy required to transport our merchandise to our distribution centers.

In 2006, Limited Brands became a partner in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay Transport Partnership program. This program works with shippers, freight carriers and logistics companies to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution caused by the transportation of goods. Limited Brands is working with the SmartWay program on several projects that have resulted in a reduction of our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2005, Limited Brands began a program to convert much of our inbound freight from truck to rail in order to reduce diesel fuel consumption and emissions. By 2008, this much-expanded project resulted in:

• A 50 percent increase in the number of containers shipped via rail instead of truck from 2007;
• A savings of 402,000 gallons of diesel fuel; and
• Reduced emissions of carbon dioxide by nearly 4,000 metric tons.

In 2009, we increased the use of rail even further within our logistics operations by expanding the use of rail within our domestic transportation network. Within our domestic transportation network, we increased our utilization of rail by more than 173 percent over 2008 (based on ton-miles) and prevented the release of more than 5,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide. 

We will continue to work with SmartWay to identify opportunities to optimize this program in the future.

Limited Brands was awarded an Environmental Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency SmartWay Transport Partnership in 2007 and 2009 for its leadership in conserving energy and lowering greenhouse gas emissions from its transportation and freight activities.