Hope for the Future

The constant attack of Wal-Mart in mainstream media makes for bad business.  Wal-Mart has realized this and they are working on changes so that people alter perception of Wal-Mart.  According to the 2007 report on the State of the World by the Worldwatch Institute, "Wal-mart launched a long term sustainability initiative with leaders and executives from virtually every branch of the company formed into entrepreneurial teams focusing on areas such as packaging, real estate, energy, raw materials, and electronics waste"(Worldwatch Institute 155).

Wal-Mart's CEO set three new goals for the company in 2005:

1. Rely 100% on renewable energy
2. create zero waste
3. sell products that sustain resources and the environment

It was actually Wal-Mart who petitioned before Congress to impose required carbon caps on their business in April 2006.  To add to that, Wal-Mart has become the most abundant supplier of organic food. This allows Wal-Mart to both reduce its carbon footprint and make organic food more affordable. (Worldwatch Institute 155-156).

The part about organic food is very promising because many people cannot afford to shop at places like Whole Foods.  After reading, My Year of Meats, I have been discouraged to eat sources of meat that have been treated with hormones.  However, it is hard to tell as a consumer where my meat is actually coming from.  The only option to truly know about the quality of the meat that you are buying is to buy organic.  Unfortunately, the prices of organic food at places like Whole Foods are too high for a college student such as myself.  Since these goals were announced a few years ago, I decided to do some additional research to see if they actually came to fruition.

The Sierra Club, which is America's largest environmental organization, has come out with a report titled "What's is Wal-Marts True Environmental Footprint?" to address the feasibility of these 2005 goals.  According to the Sierra Club, there are "fundamental contradictions between Wal-Mart's business model and environmental sustainability."  For example, the daily energy usage of a Walmart Supercenter is on par with the energy usage of 1,095 residential houses.  Not only that, but Wal-Mart's business model depends on selling products that have been produced in foreign countries such as China.  China is considered the largest carbon exporter in the world.  These fast-growing countries have less restrictions on greenhouse emissions than American companies do, so they can produce huge quantities of goods without worrying about their effect on the environment.  Next, the goods must be shipped from China on huge container ships, which add a billion tons of carbon emissions per year.

In the end, it doesn't seem that Wal-Mart is making the progress that they had first promised.  Although their greenhouse emissions have dropped, many other factors such as the recent economic downturn seem to be the major reason for this drop instead of improved efficiency.  Also, sales of groceries of Wal-Mart have increased from 49% in 2009 to 54% in 2011.  Groceries entail less of a carbon footprint that manufactured goods (about 4% less), so the slight drop in emissions can also be linked to merely a change in the area of sales.  To make a sizable difference, Wal-Mart will need to take much more aggressive steps.

Source:

What Is Wal-Mart's True Environmental Footprint. San Francisco: Sierra Club, June 2011. PDF.

[Online research]