Assessing Just Which Green Wal-Mart Is Now Pursuing - AlterNet

[hatrack]

We'll see, but interesting piece.

EDIT

The holy trinity of genuine business transformation is: 1) public goals and timetables, 2) buy-in at every level of the company, and 3) transparent reporting. Wal-Mart has hit two of the three: Scott announced specific goals, and by all accounts Wal-Mart associates are invigorated by the challenge and the sense of moral mission. As for transparent reporting, time will tell, but with all the scrutiny the announcements have drawn, it would be extraordinarily difficult to back out quietly. The company has already set up more than a dozen "sustainable value networks," each focused on a particular area like packaging or facilities, each made up of Wal-Mart managers and outside educators, regulators, and environmentalists. A lot of people are involved who wouldn't hesitate to call foul if Wal-Mart stalled or backed out.

In close consultation with Amory Lovins' Rocky Mountain Institute, Scott pledged to double the efficiency of Wal-Mart's enormous truck fleet by 2015 and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from its existing stores and warehouses by 20 percent over the same stretch. By 2008, Wal-Mart will have a store design that uses 30 percent less energy and produces 30 percent fewer GHG emissions, developed out of the experimental green stores in McKinney, Texas, and Aurora, Colorado. It will reduce solid waste from its stores and clubs by 25 percent in three years. The company also plans to reduce overall packaging, move heavily into organic products (textiles and food), and even -- if you believe the chatter -- buy more local food.

Wal-Mart's notorious monopsony powers force suppliers to bend to its will or suffer. Normally this is a lamentable state of affairs, but if such power is wielded on behalf of the environment, the ramifications could be astounding. By Scott's own reckoning, 90 percent of Wal-Mart's environmental impact will come through influence on its supply chain. For example, the company is ordering wild-caught seafood from fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. It's developing a sustainable certification system for gold. In areas where Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer -- and those are legion -- its demands could transform whole industries.

Influence will also pass forward into the enormous customer base. More than other greening companies like GE and Goldman Sachs, Wal-Mart has direct, personal relationships with millions and millions of ordinary Americans of every class and color. It can educate them about eco-friendly products and behaviors; indeed, in its ubiquity it cannot help but educate them. The company is also a cultural icon, the very emblem of Middle America. By embracing green thinking, Wal-Mart could drain it of its poisonous ideological connotations and enshrine it instead as common sense. Ecology could be removed from the culture wars.

EDIT

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/40054/

[Lisa0825]

1. I'll believe it when I see it, but

I have said before that I missed the OLD Wal-Mart, which used to stand for good things, like supporting American-made products. They no longer stand for ANYTHING positive, IMO. But now that that sentiment is shared by much more of the general public, maybe they see it as good business to try to do good. Once upon a time, only the highly informed and politically active people knew about the dark side of Wal-Mart. Now, a large portion of the general population knows it. Protests spring up wherever they plan to build. Documentaries detail their wrong-doings. Their reputation is not so shiny anymore... the only *good* thing about them is they are cheap.

So, who knows... maybe they see good business in revitalizing their public image. No matter what the motivation, if it results in a positive effect on the environment, as Martha would say, "It's a good thing."