Suburban sprawl in the form of a cookie-cutter neighborhood in Arkansas.

Adam Werbach is the Global CEO of sustainability agency Saatchi & Saatchi S. This is the first in a series of guest columns he'll be writing for TreeHugger.

There’s a saying that’s deeply ingrained in Toyotaculture, “Genchi Genbutsu” which translates to “Go and see for yourself.” With that spirit in mind, I’ve moved my family to Northwest Arkansas this summer to spend time deepening my understanding of the emerging sustainability consumer movement outside of coastal cities and college towns.

Northwest Arkansas is well-known of course as the birthplace and home office of Wal-Mart, which has over the last few years established itself as a sustainability leader, despite expectations--my own included--that their efforts were a shallow public relations move.

I’m not a neutral party to this.