Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers: Adam Werbach is Your Neighbor

Shouldn't sustainability also be concerned with treatment and in particular wages of employees? Walmart is and has been taken to court all over the planet for its poor treatment of workers and most recently for gender discrimination. If you sell environmentally friendly products, even millions of them, but treat your weakest employees poorly this is not a sustainable practice. If you geographically locate into neighborhoods, disrupt homegrown business and traffic patterns, this also would not seem to be sustainable business practice. So, what it seems like we are talking about here is that Walmart has decided the way to appear green is to sell more green products that the next super store, that is not sustainability.

There are a lot of smaller retailers out there that are making great efforts in adding sustainable design and green ideas to their prototypes and actual locations. Why not try and give them some good press for a change? I can name six off the top of my head including my own company. Wal Mart is not the only retailer making a contribution to the environment.

Touting Walmart as a sustainability leader is a bit 'small picture'. Sustainability needs to encompass the company as a whole, and considering the source of nearly all of it's products is China, effects of manufacturing there and shipping here must be taken into account.
Your founder challenged American manufacturers to compete with his Asian suppliers in quality time and price. When they couldn't because of wages that are not living wages, conditions we wouldn't allow our pets to live under, and product ingredients we have banned he simply said 'Sorry, keep up'.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22507-2004Feb7?language=printer

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/wmchina.html

The ramp up of technology in China, spurred by foreign (US) manufacturing work, has spurred a rush for energy, which is taking the form of oil and coal burning plants. In China's development program of new energy and renewable energy, Firewood and charcoal are listed (at the top) with a goal of going from 640 to 1340 units (firewood and charcoal) and 18000 to 27000 units of firewood from 2000 to 2010. An interesting category on the list 'ABC Warfare Energy (which I assume to be nuclear, but which the military defines as 'atomic, biological and chemical warfare) are slated to go from 250 to 1700 units in that time frame. The air, water and earth pollution there has to be added to the equation, especially considering the corporation's command decision to invest profits from our pockets into another country's economy while still calling itself a 'sustainability leader'.

http://www.weea.org/Occasional%20Papers/Documents/chinapaper.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/business/worldbusiness/11chinacoal.html?ex=1307678400en=e9ac1f6255a24fd8ei=5088partner=rssnytemc=rss

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007626.html

And by the way, as reader here may remember, I am still waiting for the results of an in store air quality report;

http://www.sltrib.com/portlet/article/html/render_gallery.jsp?articleId=7239727&siteId=297&startImage=1

I would have to agree with previous comments regarding sustainability eccompassing how the employee is treated. The destruction of local businesses, additional traffic and travel to Wal Mart. Additionally all the mega strip malls croping up with the same darn stores that are located two towns away sucking up every available piece of undeveloped land out of this country. How many of the same stores does one need in a 15 mile radius. We will soon have 3 Wal Marts within that distance from us (if not more). What a waste of natural resources, land.

I would think also sustainability would encompass the quality and projected life span of a product. Many items at Wal Mart are not only cheaper, but they are just cheap (as in inferior, not made for longevity). Because they are cheaper people have the attitude "it only cost $5.00".......just toss it and buy a new one. More resources, packaging, transportation, trips to the store.......

This seems in stark contrast to a two-month-old article I just read in the Arkansas state paper...

The housing costs around "Walmartville" have increased so much (a bottom-rung one-bedroom efficiency suite goes for average $500/mo), that most people can't afford them.

This article was about the 500+ community of homeless people that a farmer has allowed sanctuary. The article explains a study of these homeless, in which over %80 of these homeless work at least 32 hours a week for $8/hr or less.

Affordable housing.. right... unless you make less then $8/hr.. which constitutes over %90 of the population.

Let's also not forget that Arkansas has tied with Mississippi for the last spot in median income per person per state since we've kept records (starting in the 1930's)... yeah, a lotta benefit the people of Arkansas has had from being the home of the richest family in the US for the last 50 years....

Adam, this project is interesting, and I almost appreciate the idea of leaving SF in order to see what's really going on in middle America in terms of peoples' views and attitudes towards sustainability. Almost. But I am quite proud to be among the 11% of Americans who don't go to Wal Mart. To shop. Ever.

I went to the "sustainable" Wal Mart a few years ago in McKinney, TX, to look at what was going on there, and if all Wal Marts were like that one -- with PV panels, skylights, LED lights in the frozen foods freezers, fly ash recycled into the stained concrete floors, a permeable parking lot with native plants etc.,. maybe you could change my mind.

But really, who am I kidding? While I appreciate you going to Bentonville see what people might actually think, I'm going to stay of the mindset that what people THINK they want is irrelevant. Escalating energy prices from gasoline to electricity is going to compel people to change whether they want to or not. Instead of taking cues from what people currently believe, Wal Mart could just simply top-down force sustainability on people the same way they force manufacturers of products to make things in China because Wal Mart requires such low production costs and razor thin profit margins if you want shelf space.

Wal Mart has the ability to use LED lights in frozen food freezers now. DO IT IN EVERY NEW STORE. It doesn't matter what a consumer thinks about LEDs. It's the right thing to do. It's the people who know better who should be leading, not following, the rest of the country.

I used to say back in 2003 that if you gave me the same advertising budget that GM was using on the Hummer and let me advertise the Prius, I would outsell the Prius to Hummer 10 to 1. Now, GM is thinking about killing the Hummer brand or selling it off. If GM hadn't been so concerned then with whether people really wanted more fuel efficient vehicles back then, but instead took some responsibility for setting rather than following trends, they'd be in much better shape. I’ll say the same thing to you about Wal Mart today. I know, Wal Mart has made advances in selling organic food, CFLs, blah, blah, blah. But your business model really ought to consider how $12.55 a gallon gas is going to impact your bottom line. People’s attitudes aren’t in tune with such dire predictions, but I’m pretty sure that reality is coming sooner than most people think. While what you find out might be interesting, it isn’t very forward-thinking. And now is a very good time for companies the size of Wal Mart to be forward-thinking even if middle America hasn’t caught up yet.

Wal-Mart recently built a Wal-Mart less than 5 miles from my house....and about less than 10 from another Wal-mart they JUST built.
They cut down a lot of trees to build the new wal-mart, there was road construction, and I already know the quiet neighborhood they built it by will NOT be quiet again...unless the Wal-Mart bombs...but I highly doubt it will.

In any case, it would be nice for Wal-Mart to start taxing customers .50 per plastic bag in order to get customers to use the reusable ones.
My mom said she would be worried that the cashier checking her out would get an attitude because she had reusable bags and she worried that the reusable bags would mess up the self-check out scale Wal-Mart uses to weigh the items you buy.
I recommend Wal-Mart train their cashier to use less plastic bags, maybe try to encourage customers to purchase reusable bags and to be okay with customers that prefer using reusable bags and not to get all huffy.
Today my mom did grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and I kept seeing items in TWO plastic bags. Why?? I have NO clue but it just bugged me to no end.

I think Wal-Mart has a long way to go...but they could be worse. At least they're trying which is more than I can say for most retailers.

::Sigh::
I'll be back.

Oh yeah....

It seems most Arkansans are not worried about sustainability.
On the local news today, a reporter said most Arkansans have not altered their driving habits like most people in the country. I believe it.
I still see people purchasing huge SUVS and I still see soccer moms driving huge suburbans.
I mentioned to my mom, "I"m always seeing people drive but never fill up."
While driving past Sam's, there were lines to fill up for gas and I realized why, Sam's Club has gas that 20 cents cheaper than other gas stations.
It certainly makes sense.

In any case, Arkansas and Arkansans in general will depress and dissapoint you in terms of concern for global warming and sustainability.
I find something new to be depressed about in this state every single day when it comes to global warming and sustainability.

::sigh::

its really sad when we see "articles" about sustainability from "green ceos". buying groceries at wallmart? so if one's mind is ok to feeding their children gmos from wallmart whats next?

its times like these when folks have to realize that broke hippies are usually more sustainable than ceos, instead of the intense scapegoating. thirty years ago someone who considered themselves sustainable would not shop at wallmart, and hopefully thirty years from now people will realize the same.

its only, now, that sustainability is so popular that we are even seeing "articles" like this. kind of reminds me of the green revolution in india years ago, and we see the evidence of that......

keep trying treehugger, your slipping......

love,
an elf

its really sad when we see "articles" about sustainability from "green ceos". buying groceries at wallmart? so if one's mind is ok to feeding their children gmos from wallmart whats next?

its times like these when folks have to realize that broke hippies are usually more sustainable than ceos, instead of the intense scapegoating. thirty years ago someone who considered themselves sustainable would not shop at wallmart, and hopefully thirty years from now people will realize the same.

its only, now, that sustainability is so popular that we are even seeing "articles" like this. kind of reminds me of the green revolution in india years ago, and we see the evidence of that......

keep trying treehugger, your slipping......

love,
an elf

As an expatriate southerner (in Japan), a proud Arkansan, and a human being very deeply concerned with the state of the world and very much living as low-impact of a lifestyle as I can, I am pretty appalled by this dumb ad for Wal-Mart and happy to see that other people aren't buying it either. Boycott that shit! There is NOTHHING eco about Wal-Mart. Someone else said it before, "I am convinced that Wal-Mart is paying writers on this website. Shame. If Wal-Mart cared about the environment at all they would close their doors.

i fail to see how this guest blogger is doing anything to inspire and empower a new culture of thinking. positioning wal-mart as some model for sustainability misses the entire point of the movement.

improved means to an unimproved end.

why not focus on cultivating the real pillars of the sustainability movement so that future generations will be inheriting more than band-aid improvements? sorry, but the skeptic in me sees this attempt to tell a great story around wal-mart as nothing but vanity and greed.

Oy.

You're operating with a huge handicap as long as you can drop into flyoverland as though it's a foreign country. Or landing on Mars.

You need to get out more. And why--I request a response---have you been so unaware of the sustainability culture emerging in the Midwest for the past 20 years or so?

The ignorance and provincialism of moving to Arkansas to geta grip on how the masses are adapting to sustainability is staggering. I question the notion that Prometheus is bringing anything new to Riverdale here.

Oy.

You're operating with a huge handicap as long as you can drop into flyoverland as though it's a foreign country. Or landing on Mars.

You need to get out more. And why--I request a response---have you been so unaware of the sustainability culture emerging in the Midwest for the past 20 years or so?

The ignorance and provincialism of moving to Arkansas to geta grip on how the masses are adapting to sustainability is staggering. I question the notion that Prometheus is bringing anything new to Riverdale here.

The comments about the wages and PV panels, skylights, LED lights etc... are all discouraging. I have not become a treehugger yet. You see, my friend (of many years) is a treehugger and an annoying one; but still my friend. We are expecting our first child at the end of the month and this has changed my views on how we treat our world. I was in the process of changing and my first child has made me speed the process. From a newbie, what I find interesting is the sudden change treehuggers want us to have. For the first time I've started to completely recycle and all my friend had to say was that 'I should change all the light bulbs in the house' and this is my point. I get very discouraged when I hear negative comments like the ones above. Great job Adam! Wal-Mart has to start somewhere and they've selected a great consultant to propel Wal-Mart forward. As far as employee treatment, that will change as well; one step at a time. So to all the treehuggers, please be patient with us as change is not easy no matter what change.

As for the light bulbs, as they burn out, I'll replace them with low energy bulbs.

Welcome to NW Arkansas.

Courtney is right, the people here will disappoint you in terms of sustainability and environmental awareness. When I moved here three years ago from Oregon, I was appalled at the huge amounts of litter on the sides of the roads and in the streams. My neighbors burn plastic all the time. Lots of people drive full size vehicles.

But there is a change coming, especially in NW Arkansas that may not be in the rest of the state. I guess the University can do something like that. They started a recycling program that now recycles over twenty tons of stuff each month. That's great, but how can we get people to throw out less garbage?

If you drive a few more miles south on 540, look over to the left and you'll see St. Thomas's. They have just installed three more of those Skystream 3.7 wind turbines that Wal-Mart has one of. Actually, between Wal-Mart and St. Thomas's, the number of small wind turbines in the whole state of Arkansas has doubled even though we are 26th in the nation for wind resources.

But head over to Siloam Springs and you'll find a coal power plant, a natural gas one in Tontitown and a nuke in Russellville. With building codes only calling for 2x4 walls and very little in the way of windows and with temperatures ranging from 0 to 100, there's a guarantee that people will be using alot of energy to heat and cool for many years to come.

I hope you can do something for Arkansas, there are so few of us here doing their part.
WiredForStereo

Reading most of the comments on this article reminds me that the thing that bugs me about many people who espouse sustainability is how darned judgmental they seem to be. In my opinion, it is these people who are making it hard for America to be bluer instead of red. Such talk shows a great deal of tone deafness and self-righteousness by not hearing and acknowledging the other side's backlash against such talk. These types of comments provide the fodder for the Limbaughs and Hannity's -- hence the stereotype liberal elitism. The talking heads are not our worry, but their audiences are.

I'd be very happy to see the outraged "shoulds" wither and die and instead see evidence of the wisdom that everyone has their own path and their own pace. We can attract more flies with honey than s***.

If someone wants to express his or her **own** frustration with the world and other people because they are not who or what we'd like, that's different -- it is more palatable and digestible when we recognize and *own OUR* frustration rather than project it onto the way the world should be. If we lay off of the judgmental tone we just may charm folks into going along with us.

Saatchi & Saatchi is an advertising agency, NOT "sustainability consultants." Mr. Werbach's attempts to paint his position otherwise are mildly insulting and certainly not convincing.

The Wal-Mart store he mentions visiting - at a sweetly named "Pleasant Crossings Boulevard" - is actually on the side of a six-lane highway. It's not exactly the vision of a sustainable, walkable community that most treehuggers envision. Windmills or no, every single shopper at that Wal-Mart store drove there and nothing short of a massive company overhaul is going to change that fact.

I highly recommed to anybody who believes Wallmart is working towards sustainablility that they need to visit http://wakeupwalmart.com visit even if you don't believe it.

Seriously team treehugger, what are you thinking. Like someone else said, the only way walmart could prove it believes in a sustainable future would be to close its doors.

Please do some research before covering such nonsense again. I'm about ready to remove myself from the mailing list if TTH is going to promote propaganda supporting the likes of Walmart.

And what does the rest of the Werbach family think about all this? How are San Francisco-born babies reacting to the new world to discover in NW Arkansas?

I have been very disappointed in Wal-Mart lately. For one thing was seing the leaders? of the company dress up in womens clothing for the shareholders meeting. It appeared to me that they were making fun of the housewives that shop at Wal-Mart. Another thing is the turnover of employees at your stores. Good employees are not rewarded. There was a young man that worked at the local Wal-Mart that was fired for trying to help with the turnover problem. I only know this person from the store. He was always ready to help the customer, greet them with a smile and dressed more like I would expect someone who valued his job. He always wore a dark blue shirt and a tie. Have you ever heard of dressing for the job you want?
I always looked forward to going the Wal-Mart when I was a child and went to Arkansas to visit family. The stores weren't much in those days but always fun for a California girl. As I grew up I heard that Sam Walton made the employees owners in the store though shares or whatever, I really don't remember since that was a long time ago. One thing for sure, I am certain that Sam Walton has turned over in his grave several time due to the way HIS company is being handled by family and others. I am so sorry to see this happen to a company that such a good man started so many years ago.

Julia says: "If we lay off of the judgmental tone we just may charm folks into going along with us."

Wow, your post was non-jugmental and charming? Including the swears and name-calling? Wow, there really isn't much anyone could say, in response, but "huh?"

I'm sure Walmart is a good advertiser and all, but this blog by Adam Werbauch doesn't really pass the ''sniff " test, in my mind. I not proud to say that I do, rarely, shop at Walmart anymore, and I did buy a Walmart bag because I forgot my own, but it doesn't make me feel good when I look at it.

Adam, your house is pretty darn big, good for you - it's the walmart mentality, of getting more for less. I just hope you do your best to show everyone around you how you actually "walk the walk" eco-wise, of course, and aren't simply just selling out.

I lived in Bernal Heights once upon a time too, Mr. Werbach, except I didn't trade it in for a McMansion and try and make it all okay by buying a few re-usable grocery bags. Oh, but you work for an advertising agency, so that makes it all okay!

Wal Mart is trying to build a SECOND Wal Mart store in Chico, California at this time, a town of population of about 100,000.

Give me a break.

Empathy and concern for workers does not exist in corporate America any longer. America is in big, big trouble, and we are not "buying" it anymore.

@Julia & others:

I realize the tone of my post was EXTREMELY sanctimonious, but it was long enough as it was – I didn’t want to take any extra time to talk about another important corollary to what I was saying.

Adam is no neophyte. He’s not some uninitiated person who might be turned off to the environmental movement by criticism – so I’m approaching my comments to him as someone who knows better than as someone who sits around listening to right-wing radio – where the appropriate approach might be one of sweetness, understanding, and an abundant helping of tolerance.

The main point I was making is that Wal Mart pulls no punches in their supply chain as far as requiring people to make products in China for as cheaply as possible. Why should their approach to environmentalism involve excessive hand-holding and coddling?

If I thought his approach was to go to Bentonville in an effort to change minds – to see how to more effectively promote sustainability, I’d think that’s great. If I thought turn-key solar panel installations or installation service by Wal Mart was going to arise out of this project, I might keep my mouth shut. But it sort of sounds like he wants to see what Wal Mart can do within or around the edges peoples’ preset belief system. This is not a time for companies like Wal Mart to meet or work within the rubric of what people already believe. This is a time for Wal Mart to lead people, not vice versa. And in order to get Wal Mart to do that, maybe someone with knowledge and a coherent – someone who might be bashed as “a liberal elite” – needs to say so.

None of us can say what time it is for Wal Mart except Wal Mart itself (barring some economic or political catastrophe). I don't like it any more anyone else, but that is a fact.

The choice of the word uninitiated precisely illustrates what I mean -- as if there is a club of us who know better. This way of thinking is dangerous, IMO. What follows from that is that we know what is "right' as opposed to "wrong".

This is precisely the tone I am addressing (and not just in these posts, but I took this opportunity to address a trend I think I see). There is no such thing as absolutely right or wrong. I wish we could be careful not to talk as though there is because I think it would go better for us.

I think it is most effective -- meaning what gets the best results -- for us to meet others where they are...whether they be Wal Mart or individuals, and work our way from there. Deciding where someone or some entity should be at the moment feels good because it makes us feel right, but it doesn't work, as Bubba perfectly demonstrates just about every time he opens his mouth.

Hey buddy, thanks a million. My wife has been on me to sell our house and get something smaller. After she read your post she decided we can keep it. Monkey see, monkey do, I guess. Are you driving an SUV? Sure could use the help on that one.