Wal-Mart wants your cleantech ideas

Posted by David Roberts at 1:43 PM on 27 Feb 2008

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

We are trying something new at Wal-Mart…amidst the crazy fast, rapidly growing space of clean/green technologies we have found it pretty difficult to do two things:

1. Find the technologies that we should be implementing and
2. Be sure those that we know about are the best options with the most business potential and positive environmental impact.

With this in mind, we've decided to partner with Cleantech, a very large network of the people who have the ideas and the people who have the capital to give those ideas business potential. To begin, we have identified seven initial opportunities we hope to find solutions for. These first seven areas include: harnessing wind, utilizing organic waste, utilizing household hazardous waste, improving on current forklift battery practices, finding better building materials, utilizing waste and storm water, and utilizing cooking oil waste.

Send 'em your ideas. I'm sure "your business model is intrinsically unsustainable so you should commit institutional suicide" will go right to the top of the pile!

For story: Wal-Mart wants your cleantech ideas
2 Comments | Post a Comment

Actually, Wal-Mart DOESN'T want your comments

Wal-Mart's just looking for comments from the scientific community. For those non-scientists among us, we can put our suggestions here.

by lookout scout at 2:37 PM on 29 Feb 2008

In Beijing

Up until late last year, I had never shopped in a Wal-Mart. But, there is one only about 40 minutes from me by bicycle that has a couple of Western products I still like to buy (American mustard, some Mexican salsa, and cheese mainly (though I have sworn off the latter until my pants are a bit looser!).

With the plastic bag ban coming in June, I had seen tv reports that some foreign chains were already offering cloth bags for sale. So far, Wal-Mart doesn't have any at the checkout counter. But they do have a checkout line marked "environmentally friendly" (in English, not sure what the Chinese says), which is for people who don't want plastic bags (I fill up my back pack). So, that is something.

Given its size the impact of its decisions, we should of course, applaud the good ones, but keep its feet toasting.

patrick in Beijing

by bookerly at 6:32 PM on 01 Mar 2008

ADVERTISING POLICY

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