I'll still shop local business/farms, whole foods, and target before I will set foot in a Wal-Mart. But there are many people for whom the choice is Kroger or Super Wal-Mart (my college town a hundred years ago) and so it is good that they are going in the direction they are.

I agree - Wal-Mart isn't green. And his approach is the right one. Make it part of the business case for them and then it will become part of the corporate culture. we know this will be sustainable. Hopefully that can turn people into "treehuggers". But if the only way we can get them there is through their own interest - then so be it. Turn people into treehuggers in any way we can. Some will jump on a boat to save a whale while others will cut cost in the business. Any way that we can get them to be more environmentally responsible is a step forwrd. But it isn't an end-game. It's just a first move. Lots more to do - so keep on pushing.
www.angryafrican.net

As the director of a non-profit working hard to push the world's largest companies toward ever more substantive climate action (www.climatecounts.org), what I'm about to say may seem blasphemous. But I happen to think Lee Smith's comments are a breath of fresh air. Our society and our marketplace need to hear less from companies that are just riding the green wave of the moment, using marketing buzz words and ad campaigns in an attempt to establish green cred. We need to hear more from straight-talking CEOs who bear witness to the idea that wasting energy and resources while at the same time relying on unsustainable sources for that energy and those resources is, plain and simple, a terrible way to do business. That's the heart of the matter. When did waste become a viable business strategy? Our unfortunate complacency as consumers is what's let it go on for as long as it has. We shouldn't be focused on creating a "green" economy; we should be focused, as Lee Smith seems to be, on managing the economy we have much, much more intelligently. In the end, it will be better for everybody -- and the planet as well.

There is alot of bad that can be said about walmart.

Now that i got that out of the way, there is alot of good that can come from walmart (or target or kmart or etc). Walmart has unbelievable power to push both the consumer and the industry in new ways. If walmart reduces waterbottles weight, even slightly the total effect could be massive in terms of energy spent, material used, and cost to the producer as well as (possibly) the consumer