Wal-Mart overdoes it

All these green initiatives, oy

Posted by David Roberts at 3:40 PM on 01 Feb 2007

Read more about: Wal-Mart | business | greenwashing

Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott just announced a comprehensive new initiative called "Sustainability 360," which will attempt to infuse environmental concern in every part of the company's operations:

"Sustainability 360 takes in our entire company - our customer base, our supplier base, our associates, the products on our shelves, the communities we serve," said Scott. "And we believe every business can look at sustainability in this way. In fact, in light of current environmental trends, we believe they will and soon."

Reuters coverage here.

I tell you, as someone who's obviously (obviously, right?) using green issues as a big smoke screen to hide EEEVIL, Scott sure does seem to be overdoing it a bit, huh? It's like, enough, dude, you got the PR benefits! You can ease up now.

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Effecting sustainability at Wallmart

David Roberts: Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott just announced a comprehensive new initiative called "Sustainability 360," which will attempt to infuse environmental concern in every part of the company's operations

Wallmart is going to commission the construction of hundreds of nuclear power plants?

by Nucbuddy at 3:57 PM on 01 Feb 2007

"organic cotton yoga outfits"

organic cotton...good...but a yoga outfit? I've never done yoga, but somehow I always thought it was kind of the opposite of "outfit".

Anyway, Walmart's sold 190,000 of them.

head...spinning......so...many...mixed...messages

...But seriously. I believe the full credit goes to Amory Lovins and RMI for convincing Walmart to go "sustainable". Whatever that means.

by Jones at 5:11 PM on 01 Feb 2007

not so bad

I can't speak to Walmart's fundemental motivations, but I will say that their efforts towards sustainability have so far been fairly impressive. Their prototype "green stores" incorporate some fairly aggressive measures. They have a long way to go, but they are certainly going beyond the light green minimum.

They also have enough market share to singlhandedly drive the development of, e.g. hybrid delivery trucks, or high-efficiency refrigerator cases. Once these things are developed, they become available for smaller operations as well.

by GreenEngineer at 5:34 PM on 01 Feb 2007

More on Wal-Mart and System Change

There is an interesting article speaking about the necessity of a change at System level written by Frank Dixon, Former Director - Research at Innovest Venture Partners. He takes a unit of Wal-Mart as an example in this article. The article is available at:

http://www.globalsystemchange.com/GSC/Articles_files/SSI%...

You are invited to go through the same.

by ajithsrn at 6:19 PM on 01 Feb 2007

Give it chance?

I'm just as skeptical as the next person. However, isn't this the kind of thing that enviros have been pushing for? Business to embrace these initiatives. So, let's see if they can back it up because if they do, with their supply chain, they have the power to affect more change than any piece over legislation.

Phd Student, IGERT Urban Ecology Fellow, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University

by Thad Miller at 8:44 PM on 01 Feb 2007

Well

I guess that's why they keep turning the lights on and off in my store?

by bkrell at 9:37 AM on 02 Feb 2007

Having our cake and eating it too

It's a conundrum for sure. I remember many years ago, when I was still married and publishing a newsletter on social investing called Good Money, having a conversation with my then husband along just these lines. Social investing is all about "doing well while doing good" and the idea is to invest in companies that you think are the good guys while avoiding those that you think are the bad guys. The goal is to ultimately change the bad guys into good guys because they will eventually see that, over time, good guys make more money. Of course it's not that simple in real life. Anyway I was more radical than my husband and his father (who started Good Money in our farmhouse in Vermont back in 1981), so it was rare that a corporation ever met my high standards, which is why I published my own newsletter called Catalyst: Investing in Social Change. But every once in a while a corporation would do something, well, good - like Wal-Mart's current plan (assuming it's for real). Of course I would have some reason why it wasn't good enough. Finally I had to admit that the only thing that would make me happy is for every huge corporation to disappear off the face of the Earth because they were part of a system that is inherently unecological, often unjust and just plain wrong. I still feel that way deep down, although I have to temper those feelings with a strong dose of reality while, at the same time looking in the mirror at my own imperfect self. Sigh.

by SMLowry at 12:20 PM on 02 Feb 2007

"the good life"; "associate"

Sorry, one and all, if you wish to clap clap clap for Wal-Mart's "sustainability" effort. (I am sure, if Lee Scott had really tried, he could have fit "sustainability" and "sustainable," always highlighted, at least ten or fifteen more times into that brief self-congratulatory announcement.) I cannot join you.

Are these people "eeevil"? Well, far be it from me to judge, but there are indications to that effect. And the specific forms are greed, injustice and fraud. The last is a real biggy in Dante's Inferno.

We read -- from this Wal-Mart page, which wastes no time in telling us Wal-Mart's NYSE abbreviation -- :
<<The company's effort to make environmentally friendly products more affordable and available to customers aligns with Wal-Mart's purpose to save people money so they can live better lives.<br> >>

!Estupendo! Aristotle would be delighted to know that twenty-four hundred years after he was walking around at his place in Athens, there at last exists an institution named Wal-Mart which allows people to live the good life -- and affordably, too!

<<
Emphasizing that sustainability is consistent with the company's culture, Scott also discussed the integral role that associates play in helping Wal-Mart reach its objectives.
>>

"Associate" is a truly creepy term. In fairness, Wal-Mart is by no means the only retailer to use it. But I wish we all had the courage and energy to challenge that wicked, slimy euphemism whenever retailers drag it out.

Clearly, "associate" does not mean anything like its original meaning, "partner, ally, one who stands with me on an equal footing with me." It means "someone who works for us, to whom we give a wage, who has no real part in our company, who does not share in its profits, who is deceived to think that ours is an equitable, kind-hearted, all-loving community."

In this context, Scott pretends to dignify the "associates" by suggesting that they are independent, willing partners in this sustainability endeavor. In fact, they are just receiving orders from on high: "Do as we say, or else leave."

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 1:28 PM on 02 Feb 2007

Wal-Mart Overdoes It??

Okay, this guy isn't our typical leader of issues environmental. Agreed. I don't care who speaks out for greening up our world. He says how many customers he believes he can reach with the new light bulbs and how much money can be saved overall. Wait a minute! How much energy is saved is more the answer to that figure, isn't it? So even though I don't care who's speaking out, I sure would like for the sentences to end as they began: x+x=2x in any language, all the time. No playing around with mis-matches.

But as I started to say, I don't care who's speaking out for the greening of our poor benighted world. Each and every person, corporate spokesman, world leader, and yes, even big Hollywood names - they all bring in thousands of individual citizens in every country who will do some small part in recycling or using natural products and fewer chemicals only because they saw a face they recognized or heard a name they knew.

Each of those individuals in the above paragraph will also bring in 10 more, just as in retail lore. They'll be so personally proud of what they're doing, and so anxious to tell their friends and neighbors all about it and how they learned about it all that each of those will spread the news to their...to their...to their!

It may be starting bigger than expected with bigger names, but I personally will take whatever I can get!

In Peace, Harmony and Unity may we find ways to work together to meet our common goal - the health of our earthly Home.

by MarchDancer at 5:27 PM on 08 Feb 2007

ADVERTISING POLICY

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