VANCOUVER, Canada — In February, Walmart Canada convened 300 of the country's largest corporations for a green business summit to challenge those firms to set tough new goals for reducing their environmental impacts. The CEOs of 24 companies signed a commitment to launch a "major sustainability project" in the course of the next year to meet Walmart's challenge.

Now, six months later, seven firms across a range of industries from consumer packaged goods to home improvement stores have posted updates on their progress in meeting their self-imposed sustainability commitments.

The updates, published on ShareGreen.ca, offer an impressive slice of the ways that companies can save significant money while at the same time reducing their greenhouse gas emissions or other environmental impacts.

Presented below are a snapshot of the results from each of the seven firms' sustainability commitments. The companies are:

• Frito Lay Canada
• Hallmark Canada
• The Home Depot Canada
• Kraft Canada
• Kruger Products LP
• Nature's Grilling
• and Walmart Canada

Frito-Lay Canada posted an update on the adoption of its 100 percent compostable snack chip packaging, an innovation the company had previously launched in the United States, but which first hit Canadian shelves in March. As of August 2010, Frito Lay Canada expects to sell 17 million compostable bags per year from its SunChips line, and is working on other green packaging initiatives for its other chip brands.

Hallmark Canada committed to a comprehensive energy conservation project, one that builds on the company's 20-year-long energy conservation program. The overall program has cut Hallmark's energy use by 25 percent since 1990, and in 2010, the company converted 1,600 light fixtures in its Toronto headquarters to 25-watt fluorescent tubes. Eight months into the project, the building has already cut its energy use by 9.6 percent.