Wal-Mart: The Next Steps Toward Sustainability
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01.24.08
Image Credit- Jeff McIntyre-Strasburg at Sustainablog
Two years ago inTreeHugger we wrote about Lee Scott's October Surprise, his speech laying out the dramatic plans he had to take Wal-Mart into the 21st Century. He said at the time: "What if we used our size and resources to make this country and this earth an even better place for all?
We were skeptical and said " We will wait and see"
To our surprise, Lee Scott is still at the helm of Wal-Mart, and he has been meeting many of his commitments. Yesterday he made new ones; we provide a quick summary below and will follow up with greater detail.
Compact fluorescent bulbs at a Wal-Mart in Kansas City, Mo. Lee Scott says that the company had sold 145 million of the bulbs. Image credit Ed Zurga, Bloomberg News
Some of the points from Lee Scott's speech:
-to work with suppliers to make electrical products 25% more efficient;
-to sell only energy star rated air conditioners by 2010;
-to double the sales of home efficiency products;
-to look at selling hybrid or plug-in electric cars (and maybe charge them from turbines in our parking lots)
-to rebuild the supply chain:
"We will require these suppliers to demonstrate that their factories meet specific environmental,
social and quality standards.....we will favor -- and in some cases even pay more -- for suppliers that meet our standards and share our commitment to quality and sustainability. Paying more in the short term for quality will mean paying less in the long term as a company."
In another post on Wal-Mart we noted that Lee Scott's ambitions contradicted those of the founder, Sam Walton, and that all of the green pronouncements in the world do not speak to their core customer, who is after always low prices, always. But he has survived and the company has thrived. The Wal-Mart Effect may yet do for the environment what it did for the American economy, which was to affect us all, whether we shopped there or not. ::PDF of speech by Lee Scott from New York Times
Anybody know what the deadline date might be for China to stop using R22 as a refrigerant? Might it be 2010 or therabouts? The AC efficency goal might be what golfers call a "gimme" if window AC design changes are in the offing for other reasons.
My husband recently worked on a commercial for Wal-mart and was told the company is also trying to encourage their manufacturers to use less packaging too.
I'll probably have to change my attitudes about Walmart. I still won't shop there (don't like their stuff). But as an environmentally responsible employer of 1% of the US work force, their positive impact potential is undeniable.
I don't currently shop at a Wal Mart. But if they actually pull of this selling of electric cars and having charging turbines in their parking lots, I will reconsider. Slighty.
This is wonderful. If environmentalism wants to succeed, it can't be 100% idealistic, 100% anti-consumerism, 100% hardcore all the time. There must be comprimises, and we must work with the general population/ massive, maybe not so favored among the environmentalist crowd, entities. Like Wal Mart.
If you don't believe me, look at what William McDonough is doing in China. Instead of fighting against the Chinese government, he is working with them. This has led to them hiring him to design cities for 400 million - yes MILLION - people to live in (that is, many cities that a total of 400 million people will live in). He is possibly the most ardent environmentalist out there, and he is sticking to that, but still working with the Chinese government. And now he has the chance to be more influential than (probably) any other tree hugger in history.
I still won't shop at Wal-Mart until I've exhausted all the other, more "local" options when I need something...but this is a matter of personal preference and has little or nothing to do with my environmentalism. I'll give credit where it's due.
Some people will just assume that businesses like WalMart can't ever be a part of the solution. I say give them a chance to prove themselves (though it's not like we have a choice). So far, they're doing pretty well.
The reality is that such initiatives will do far, far more than any small changes I've made to my lifestyle. That's why we need each other. I'll continue to do my thing, in my way, and that doesn't involve WalMart much. But if thousands more people are empowered by WalMart to buy energy star appliances, then my own efforts seem that much less futile.
Also: I have no doubt that their championing of the CFL, and the influence that has on companies like Phillips and GE, has led to the development of a better product--less flicker, warmer light quality, longer life, and lower price. So I benefit whenever I pick up a CFL at my local, family-run harware store.
I am as passionate a treehugger as anyone, and I do shop at WalMart.
As a recent college graduate and the wife of a 23-year-old diabetic, money is scarce a lot of the time. Wal-Mart buys locally, sells organic and shelves environmentally-friendly items in almost every category. When my thrift store bags finally gave out last week, I bought 5 reusable shopping bags for $1 each at Wal-Mart. You just can't beat it.
Not only that, it is one-stop shopping at its finest - only one car trip to Wal-Mart a week replaces driving around the city all week long to pick up one thing here and one thing there. Not to mention, the nearest Whole Foods is 30 minutes away.
To me, being environmentally conscious is making a hundred little decisions a day to do something more "green" than you did yesterday.
One day, I hope that GREEN will be affordable for everyone. Until then, my goal is to be an example of how to be "green within your means..." and Wal-Mart is a big part of that.
WalMart presents an interesting case. The company is one of the few that are big enough to be a model of the economy itself, and looking at that model did something interesting for those that run it.
If you look back to the article linked at the beginning of this one, Scott talks about the effects of waste in the supply chain, of having to pay someone to ship the waste material into and out of their stores. It seems that WalMart is so big that what would be a trivial cost or an externality for most businesses--like the cost of shipping extra packaging, which wastes weight and even more importantly in the trucking industry, space--is a serious consideration for a company that big.
WalMart might be the first real victim of unsustainability itself (as opposed to the bad consequences of bad practices that are also unsustainable). The firm is threatened by collapse if it continues those kind of inefficiencies. For most companies that might produce some cost reduction strategies. But with the company that big, that seems to have produced not just cost reductions but a change in mindset, as they make changes in other areas that aren't just about cost.
Hopefully, WalMart can come to be seen as a mirror on the economy itself, leading others to make a similar change in mindset.
Well said, Laci!
I love shopping at Whole Foods, too, but it's nice to be able to have some organic and local choices at WalMart. We can't all afford to pay the premiums.
I'm still not buying it. Yes, it's better than their old environmental standards, but the prices Walmart insists on requires manufactures to go overseas to hire people and ship it the product back to the store. That shipping is not environmentally friendly.
But mostly I continue to not shop at Walmart because it is the most slave-labour dependent corporation I know of with the possible exception of Nike. I have environmental concerns, but my immediate social concerns come first. (Take care of the people in the present, then the next generation.)
Maybe I'm just pessimistic, but I'm not hopping on this bandwagon until it goes fair-trade.
Thought this is all great I am wondering: Have Wal-Mart put up water purifier vending machines so people can refill their empty plastic bottles with purified tap water instead of buying water in bottles?
I've said it before, but we need a fair trade standard for other goods, not just food. Things like electronics etc. A monitored fair trade (or say ethical trade) scheme could ensure that factory workers are paid living wages, with safety and health cover, and would help to minimise exploitation. WalMart is in an extremely powerful position to set something like this up. If you are reading this Lee, what do you think?
bulgarian: actually, I have seen purified water machines in wal-mart.
While I realize that the water jug refill machines are simple, money and waste conservative, let me share a story with you that I still am not sure what the ending will be...we have a Blue Fronted Amazon parrot named Peanut. She has been on that water since March of 2006 due to medication she was taking that could not be added just to tap water. It had to be added to purified water, so, we thought that the "purified"water from the Machine at Wal-Mart would be ok. Turns out we were very wrong. We just got the cultures back from our vet and it seems that the water machine is a massive breeding ground for Pseudomonas, which is a very nasty ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT bacteria. Not only have those 32 cent refill cost us over $800.00 in vet bills in one week, now I am in the big battle with the company that owns and maintains the machine at the local Wal-Mart to remove the machine. From what I have read about this bacteria it can make anyone who is immuno-compromised very ill, not just parrots and pet-companions. This means elderly, infants and people with chronic health problems. PLEASE do not use those machines that feature the 5 level osmosis/reverse-osmosis bull. It could cost you your health.