In a recession, it is easy for companies to push their green initiatives onto the back burner. But leading companies understand that a sound sustainability strategy is a key factor to economic recovery. Wal-Mart realizes this, and has recently illustrated how they are going to drive the next green recovery.
It sometimes seems like I could spend my whole career researching, or writing and speaking about, Wal-Mart. I’ve written a few different pieces in the last couple of weeks all about the retail giant. The company just keeps making news and pushing the needle on going green.
I wanted to summarize briefly what’s been happening and point people to the three different articles I wrote that paint a larger picture. The big news last week - at least according to the breathless reporting from the media and other business writers - was Wal-Mart’s intention to build a green product label. The company held a big ‘milestone meeting’ in Bentonville and did the full court press on spreading the word. I sat in on a bloggers/thought leaders call with Wal-Mart’s head of sustainability, Matt Kistler. In short, what Wal-Mart did not announce was a product label - that’s years away. The company did however launch a series of 15 questions that all suppliers will have to answer. It’s the beginning of a much longer process. But, I believe that better data up and down the chain, will in fact make all the businesses involved smarter and stronger. See “How the Wal-Mart Eco-Ratings Will Save Money“.
For me the bigger Wal-Mart story was one that nobody knew about. A few weeks ago, I spoke at Wal-Mart’s sustainability summit in Sao Paolo, Brazil. At this meeting of key suppliers, the company set bold new goals and demanded that its biggest partners sign them as well. In short, Wal-Mart seems intent on saving the Amazon rainforest - and, shockingly, the company may just do it. There were some smaller, fun announcements around things like plastic bags (see my piece “A Plastic Bag is a Pain in the Butt“, but the real story was the pact on sourcing. No more beef or soy from lands cleared from the Amazon. No more slave labor in the supply chain.
I’m confident that the ripples from these agreements will be very large and sometimes unpredictable. Sourcing strategies around the globe are under attack and will be changing. For more on my views on this see my piece in BusinessWeek, “Wal-Mart Brazil Thinks Green.”
In total, it’s been quite a month for Wal-Mart. It’s so easy to sit back in a recession and put the green initiatives to the side. But Wal-Mart and many other true leaders - like GE and IBM - are accelerating. These companies seem to know that environmental strategy is one of the key ways out of the downturn - a true green recovery is in the works at the best companies. Will your organization join it?
via:: Sustainable Life Media
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