The Greening of Wal-Mart

Here’s “an interesting article from Salon”:http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/07/21/muckraker/index.html about Al Gore getting together with Wal-Mart to green the company. Wal Mart sees it in their best financial interests to do this, and I’m not surprised.

bq. Last October, Scott pledged to transform his sprawling company, which employs 1.8 million people worldwide and ranks No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list, into a lean green machine powered exclusively by renewable energy, producing zero waste, and selling sustainable products. Those goals are so lofty they sound downright deluded, but Scott has followed them up with specific, seemingly achievable commitments and timetables. He aims, for example, to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions at Wal-Mart’s existing stores and distribution centers 20 percent by 2012, and invest $500 million in environmental improvements each year.

This will make good bottom-line sense for Wal Mart, especially when fossil fuels are so expensive. And as transportation costs increase, the decision to buy locally will certainly save some money:

bq. The produce division is ramping up its organic offerings, and plans to move toward more local farm purchases in order to save money on truck fuel costs and refrigeration. Ron McCormick, an executive in Wal-Mart’s produce division, said he plans to purchase a broader variety of produce based on what’s available in each region, rather than insisting on a “monoculture” of produce at stores nationwide. “Our whole focus is: How can we reduce food-miles?”

There are a raft of other plans: buying fish from sustainable fisheries, gold from envirofriendly mines or recycled gold sources, and using organic cottons in clothing and bedding.

What’s heartening is that this doesn’t sound like just a marketing campaign — they have real goals with measurable metrics. And while I think one can be forgiven for being skeptical of Wal-Mart following through, I think they at least get a chance. No doubt there will be plenty of folks who loudly criticize Wal-Mart for not doing more on its labor relations, or not setting aggressive enough environmental goals (even though they seem pretty aggressive to me).

But Wal Mart belongs to a business sector that stands to lose a great deal as a result of global warming., and any company operating under enlightened self-interest ought to be making this kind of change. This hasn’t always been the case, but the loss of cheap fossil fuels and the risk radical climate change poses to the places we live is changing the rules. It may be self-interest, but the sooner everyone gets on board, the better off *all* human activity — from art to commerce — will be. Wal-Mart seems prepared; I suspect their gravitational pull will drag a lot of their suppliers with them.