| WalMart will save us (?) |
[Feb. 13th, 2006|08:27 pm] |
I'm really starting to fall for this Lee Scott guy...
I've made no secret of my feelings for WalMart and their potential to green the retail industry in a HUGE way. And I make no apologies to the hippies and activists. Sure, I may not shop there, but the greener they get, the closer I am to patronize... Now here's some quotes from a recent Financial Express:
When Wal-Mart starts selling a line of organic cotton baby clothes in Europe and Japan later this year, the new products will account for just a fraction of its annual sales of about $300bn. But Wal-Mart's embrace of organic products underlines the question now facing environmental activists and others who have pressed the company to change its business practices: is the world's largest retailer setting off after Nike, Gap and others to embrace the cause of good corporate citizenship?
The cotton initiative was cited by Lee Scott, chief executive, in a speech in October, in which he set out a dramatically new vision of Wal-Mart, long criticized for focusing on low prices at the expense of everything else. "What if we used our size and resource to make this country and this earth an even better place for all of us?" asked Mr Scott, as he announced targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and cutting waste. He also committed the company to working with its suppliers to promote good environmental practices. "That speech was the single most groundbreaking speech from the CEO of a major US company on the environment that I have ever heard," says one leading US environmental activist. Wal-Mart's new strategy has thrown down a challenge to its social and environmentalist critics, who now have to decide to what extent they should engage with a company previously regarded by many as an irredeemable villain....
Environmentalists say a key test of Wal-Mart's commitment will be its plans to release an initial environmental sustainability report in 2007, together with internet data that would be used to track its commitments on the reduction of waste and greenhouse gas production. I can't wait to read it. |
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| Green Futures on the green Wal Mart ripple |
[Jan. 14th, 2006|07:41 am] |
Can Lee Scott turn green business into "business"?
Polly Ghazi, in Green Futures looks at the whole 'greening of Wal Mart' without the usual skepticism, some suspended disbelief, and a little of that cheery optimism that hopeless romantic idealists often seem to use as a lifepreserver...
I still wish that Vancouver BC accepted WalMart's uber green building plans (they rejected it because it was still a WalMart). Had they, you could be sure that everything below this line, all of the goals of WalMart would have been twice as ambitious and executed in 1/2 the time. Still, everything (especially the ripple) are great first-steps that will only lead to more! Ghazi writes that when Wal-Mart says 'we’re going green', the world takes notice. What’s more, she says, CEO Lee Scott didn't just dip his toe in the water with a blandly worded environmental policy: "His new shopping list of ambitious goals, if met, will send ripple effects around the globe."
Scott unveiled plans last October to invest $500 million in technologies to cut greenhouse gas output. Wal-Mart’s 5,000 stores are to cut their emissions by a fifth over seven years, and to raise fuel efficiency by 25% for it's truck fleet over three years. He also pledged to eliminate a quarter of the solid waste generated by stores, reduce product packaging, introduce organic lines ‘at everyday low prices’ and design a prototype new superstore with at least 25% more energy efficiency by 2009 (hey, why not? they already have the designs). Also, suppliers in China and the US will be pressured on their sustainability practices, with the award of Wal-Mart contracts favouring those who show progress.
So, um, is this greenwashing? Ghazi says no.
( Read more... ) |
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| hey! |
[Mar. 12th, 2001|11:16 am] |
if you're here it's probably because of the walmart stuff: but really, check out the rest, here are my catogories, (and of cours eyou can always just go to the homepage:
1)!greatest hits!, 2) Algae, 3) Amish techs, 4) Babysteps, 5) Bioplastics and beyond, 5.2) Biodiesel, 6) blingbling, 7) CEOs, 8) climate change,9) ClimateMods, 10) dinosaurfuels, 11) DIY, 12) Efficiencies, 13) EVs, 14) food, 15) fuel cells, 16) GCMs, 17) geothermal, 18) gizmos, 19) Government, 20) Green Building, 21) Greenbiz, 22) greenDesign, 23) greenFuture, 24) Hemp, 25) Hydrogen, 26) I Want One!!!, 27) Ice Age, 28) Icecream, 29) Invasive, 30) just plain crazy... 31) kyoto, 31.5) Living Machines, 32) new energy, 33) obfuscation, 34) Peak Oil, 35) pooh, 36) robots, 37) sewers, 38) annoying cellphone users, 39) solar, 40) Solar-Grade Silicon, 41) solarPV, 42) stirling- engines, 43) Stylee, 44) think!, 45) Urban Windfarms, 46) VJ, 47) water, 48) windpower, |
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