Governor Mark Dayton recognized Minnesota-based Best Buy Thursday for recycling 1 billion pounds of electronics waste and appliances at a celebration at the retailer's campus in Richfield.
 
The Governor thanked Best Buy e-waste recycling champions and CEO Hubert Joly, who likened 1 billion pounds of e-waste to 67,000 elephants, five Eiffel Towers, or 200 statues of Paul Bunyan.
 
"Best Buy is an industry leader in helping consumers to recycle their old electronics," said Governor Dayton. "Their efforts are good for Minnesota's environment and consumers. I thank Best Buy for their outstanding leadership and for their continuing commitment to responsible environmental stewardship."
 
"Best Buy's leadership in helping Minnesotans and consumers across the country recycle is a fantastic example of how retailers step up to solve problems. This voluntary effort and similar initiatives by retailers in many of our communities are making a difference," said Minnesota Retailers Association President Bruce Nustad following the event. "Today's achievement is a strong reminder that together retailers, consumers and communities do great things."
 
At Thursday's celebration, Best Buy announced its next goal in e-waste recycling: 2 billion pounds by 2020.

During last week's Minnesota Retailers Association Board meeting, Board Chair Mike Hiltner (Best Buy) recognized and thanked Sen. Kari Dziedzic for her work with retailers on a mobile device acquisition bill passed during the 2014 legislative session. 

In recognizing Sen. Dziedzic, Hiltner shared these comments:

"During the 2014 legislative session, Senator Kari Dziedzic worked closely with retailers and MnRA as she crafted a bill designed to reign in mobile device theft and related violence in Minnesota.

MnRA recognizes Sen. Dziedzic for engaging retailers on her mobile device acquisition bill and working with the industry to protect responsible retailers.

Today we thank Sen. Dziedzic for successful collaboration with the retail industry."

Thank you Sen. Dziedzic for your partnership!

This past weekend, Best Buy President and CEO Hubert Joly had a unique opportunity to address the nation's governors at the National Governors Associations summer meeting. Joly's talk focused on how today's retailers are integrating the in-store and online customer experience, and the need for marketplace fairness.

Joly said that today's trends do not forecast the death of mainstreet retailers, rather retailers with a multi-channel approach to sales are poised for success. In addition, Joly shared his retail recipe for retail success: focus on advice, service, and convenience. For Best Buy, this has meant refocusing on providing an amazing customer experience, leveraging unique assets, building capability while innovating, and experimenting with strategies.

Joly thanked the National Governors Association for its leadership on online sales tax fairness, and asked each state to continue that push, saying if we want help create 1.5 million new U.S. jobs and combat the closure of 5,000 stores last year, marketplace fairness is needed now.  Government shouldn't pick winners and losers, he told the governors, adding "I think it's an issue that can be solved and must be solved this year."

Click here to watch Hubert Joly's speech.