Hank Mullany

The big idea:

Driving the sustainability bandwagon.

In an initiative that's extravagant in its fossil-fuel-saving thrift, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has gone green to cut supplier costs, shipping costs, operating costs and customers' electricity bills. The venture is mission-critical for the discount chain, Mullany said. "It helps us keep our costs low."

Eco-economizing: Refrigerator cases in Wal-Mart's fifth-generation prototype store, in Las Vegas, have motion sensors to turn off the lights when no one's around, saving the company more electricity in one year than the average household consumes in a decade.

"That's one idea, one store," he said, and Wal-Mart has 4,000 U.S. stores.

In another little green initiative that already is having a big multiplier effect, every store now bundles its plastic-wrap refuse and sells it for recycling. "We used to have to pay to have it hauled away," Mullany said. "Now we've got someone paying us to pick it up."

Earth's goon squad: On the supplier side, Wal-Mart is leaning on manufacturers to reengineer some appliances so they are less costly to run. "Flat-screen TVs will be 30 percent more efficient by 2010," Mullany said. The chain's vendors also are judged on a scorecard of "environmental metrics," including product-to-packaging ratios.

In May, Wal-Mart stores started selling only concentrated versions of liquid laundry detergent. Besides using less plastic in packaging, Mullany said, the concentrated products are cheaper to ship.

His own bid to save the planet: Mullany's home in Valley Forge, where he lives with his wife and two teenage sons, has mostly crossed over to energy-saving, compact fluorescent light bulbs - except in some sockets he cannot reach with a ladder.

The "squiggly bulbs," as he calls them, have been a monster hit for the discount chain, with 150 million sold.

Green cred, Hibernian style: Before joining Wal-Mart, Mullany was chief operating officer for the Kimmel Center, where he enjoyed the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Ballet and - especially - the bird's-eye view of Broad Street.

"Watching the St. Patrick's Day parade from the balcony of the Kimmel Center with the boys with their green sweaters on - that's what life's about," he said.

Philadelphia cred: Before the Kimmel post, he was president of Genuardi's Family Markets during the chain's heyday as a family-owned operation. He earned both his bachelor's and his M.B.A. at Temple University and now sits on the school's board of trustees.

Wal-Mart greeter-in-chief: As leader of the 13-state Eastern Division, one of Mullany's duties is to make the rounds at the region's 579 stores, "talking to associates, talking to customers."

He is on the road about 40 percent of the time and will open 22 stores this year.

Corner office, Wal-Mart style: True to its value-store values, the discount chain's regional headquarters is a Spartan suite of rooms in a low-rise office park in Ewing, N.J., near Trenton. Mullany's office overlooks an on-ramp to I-95.

While Wal-Mart is celebrated for innovations in logistics, transportation planning is not his personal strong suit. "One night I was here and I looked out my window and the entrance to 95 was closed off," he said.

Panicked, he called his assistant. "I don't know another way back to Philadelphia," he lamented, "without going to Atlantic City and turning right."