Wal-Mart - Can the retailer help us live a little greener?
I would like to be a better steward of the environment. But I’m not that good at recycling, to the dismay of certain of my friends. And I wouldn’t know an environmentally-friendly product from one whose fate is destined for a landfill.
Now Wal-Mart is touting an idea that it thinks will make it easier for people to live a greener lifestyle. The retailer announced today that it is creating an index that will rank the sustainability of the products you use. CEO Mike Duke said in a statement that consumers want to know “the materials in the product are safe” and that they are “produced in a responsible way.”
Wal-Mart’s new initiatives will be done in three phases. It will survey its 100,000-plus suppliers around the world to determine those company’s sustainability practices. The retailer will then create a consortium of universities to work with suppliers to develop a database looking at the lifecycle of products. It will turn to technology companies to power the index.
Lastly, it will take all the information and create ratings on the sustainability of products that are easy for consumers to read.
So what do you think of Wal-Mart’s plan? Is it something you would use?
(Photo courtesy of AP)
Comments
It's really just a big marketing ploy. All Walmart intends to do is use the "green" label to try to wipe out more small businesses and eliminate more competition and jobs.
There is nothing about Walmart that makes it remotely "green." Here's why: Walmart has wiped out locally owned businesses in every town it has invaded, so instead of buying something down the street, you now have to drive to the nearest Walmart, wasting gasoline. Secondly, most of Walmart's products are cheaply built or produced and are not designed for long-term durability, meaning you're paying for cheap crap that will break and have to be thrown into a landfill after just a few months. Thirdly, the cheap plastic crap is usually made by kids in Chinese sweatshops and has to be shipped across an ocean, wasting billions of gallons of fuel per year. Fourthly, the store's gigantic parking lots collect automobile waste which drains into waterways....the list goes on and on.
The only way Walmart could legitimately call itself "green" is if it went out of business.
Posted by: Andre Stone | July 16, 2009 7:47 PM