Great Scott

Wal-Mart CEO lays out ambitious social and environmental goals for his company

Posted by David Roberts at 1:05 PM on 24 Jan 2008

Read more about: Wal-Mart | business | greening biz operations | energy | renewable energy

Yesterday, Wal-Mart CEO gave a fairly amazing speech, assessing the company's progress on its social and environmental goals and laying out some extremely ambitious plans for the future. A taste:

He then laid out sweeping plans for the company on several health and environmental issues, and he hinted that even more ambitious goals might be on the horizon. Mr. Scott said, for instance, that Wal-Mart is talking to leaders of the automobile industry about selling electric or hybrid cars — and might even install windmills in its parking lots so customers could recharge their cars with renewable electricity.

If Scott follows through on this stuff, and Wal-Mart forces its suppliers to go along, it will be an enormous development, probably rivaling what most national governments are capable of.

Here's an NYT story on the speech; here's the speech itself; here are videos of the speech. A couple of interesting sections below the fold:

For story: Great Scott
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Wow

Now, if WalMart can be just as enthusiastic and creative about their workers. . .

Wouldn't it be great if they used some of the savings gained from "green" initiatives to pay their workers a "living wage" so that none of their full-time employees with dependants need food stamps, medicaid, and subsidized housing -- all of which cost tax payers more than what WalMart produces in taxes.

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world." -- Mahatma Ghandi

by Green Granny at 3:41 PM on 24 Jan 2008

That lieing sack of.....

compost wouldn't know "good corporate citizenship" if it bit him on the ass. The Walton family alone has enough political clout to push through universal health care in the US but they won't do it EVEN THOUGH IT WOULD SAVE THEM MONEY.

WalMart represents exactly why the economy is crashing and the climate is sliding towards a massive extinction event. You HAVE to drive to a WalMart because all the other stores have closed due to unfair competition. There you find products produced in China under the worst possible working conditions and fueled entirely by coal combustion. Then you take your purchase to the checker who still requires government subsidized health care, food stamps and housing because starvation wages and short hours are all that is available. Then you drive home.

America used to be able to walk to a number of local markets that paid enough money with one job to keep a family fed and housed. People purchased houses and raised kids on unionized grocery store and hardware store jobs. WalMart killed those people and their conservative political contributions ensured that people unwilling to work for their shit wages would go homeless.

And then they have the gall to claim green cred.

Time to knit some shrouds.

Put the Carbon Back

by Pangolin at 3:10 AM on 25 Jan 2008

ADVERTISING POLICY

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