Green WalMart: Continues to get Eco Friendly
By Nick July 15, 2008
Walmart has been boosting its green efforts quite a bit in the recent year, and Walmart announced it’s newest eco friendly initiative of agreeing to purchase sustainable wood. Instead of purchasing wood from clear cut forests and illegal forests, Walmarts now have a deal with the WWF to only purchase wood from certified, sustainable forests within the next year.
This commendable action is one of several eco friendly changes the retail giant has made within the past year. It’s a great public relations move to shed positive light on the corporate bohemoth because of the countless negative news stories about Wal-Mart the past several years.
But from sustainable wood to eco friendly milk, here is how Walmart has been going green in the last year.
Walmart Sustainable Wood - Within a year, all wood at Wal-Mart will be from certified sustainable forests (green daily)
Walmart square milk gallon jugs - My favorite. New design is cumbersome to customers, but the milk gallon jug is redesigned by Walmart for the first time since the 1950’s. The new design eliminates crates and racks to save waste and water needed to clean them. It also boosts the shipping capacity of the milk by 9%, therefore reducing the carbon footprint of the Walmart’s massive logistics and shipping fleets. (environmental leader)
Walmart Sustainable Jewelery - All the diamonds, gold, and silver in US jewelery is from sustainable mines that are eco friendly and abide by human rights standards. (green bang)
Walmart Hormone free milk - Store brand milk, now in my favorite packaging design change, no longer comes from hormone fed milk cows. (Walmart 411)
Sustainable shrimp - Shrimp at Walmart will now, forever be harvested from sustainable suppliers, in an attempt to preserve fishing waters a bit more and stop over fishing. (Green)
Walmart solar panel roof - A Canadian store tests out solar panels on roofs, and if successful, corporate says it may expand program chain wide (I highly doubt it… The star)
While Walmart has been making a bunch of noise in the ecosphere, it has obviously meet a lot of resistance like usual. Most arguments stem from the root of its business model - logistics. Being so big and having to transport so much, some ask how can we applaud Walmart’s green efforts?
And besides just the general, broader ethical questions that surround WalMart, there are a lot of criticisms of the actual programs touted above. Are they legit, and is Walmart following through on its promises? Many say no, (Walmart shrimp aren’t sustainable), about every new eco friendly initiative the giant promises.
But one thing I know - WalMart isn’t going anywhere. Environmentalists can’t shut down the store, so I do choose to applaud the company. While they can always do more, this is better than nothing, so I commend them for their baby steps toward being sustainable and eco friendly.
Topics: Eco News |
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