Comments on: Walmart’s sustainable policy - big company, big impact

By: Wal-Mart Index - green label for products! | LoLee Green

Wal-Mart Index - green label for products! | LoLee Green — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:49:32 +0000

[...] discussed Walmart’s sustainability policy before, and I’m excited to see how companies such as Walmart is enforcing some sort of [...]

By: LoLee Green » PepsiCo tests green vending machines

LoLee Green » PepsiCo tests green vending machines — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:18:26 +0000

[...] Wal-mart’s sustainable 360 initiatives I blogged about last week, PepsiCo is doing this for money saving and good PR just happens to come [...]

By: flo

flo — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:15:44 +0000

Jay - completely in agreement. Most companies don’t really care about reducing carbon footprint if there is no incentives/punishment. Right now reducing energy consumption obviously saves company money and thus is a good thing to do. the “added value” of good PR is just something that comes with it. I wish more companies do that so that the impact is even more significant!!

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:10:49 +0000

Ha ha Flora, I guess I sounded too negative about Walmart, but in fact I’m neutral to these stores Walmart, Costco, Sams Club and the like. I lived in the US for a while and Walmart was the main store that I shopped. Not so in this area of Canada because of their locations. My point about Walmart’s statement is that money is still the driving force behind the green things they’ve being doing. And this is probably the universal driving force for most people for shopping and living in general too. That this economically-correct principle could be environmentally irresponsible is the point I was trying to make. Only if we design policy/mechanism right can we equate economy to environment. As for impact, I think Walmart is doing the right thing campaigning for public awareness.

By: flo

flo — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:04:52 +0000

Hey Jay - people probably all drove to Walmart, but how is that different from driving to Costco or another big box store? Attacking just Walmart is a bit unfair for that…. but I completely agree with more biking and more local food whenever possible =).

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:19:45 +0000

Right, “Every week 176 million customers shop our stores.” I say likely they all DRIVE their cars to shop at Walmart. Guess how much GHG would be generated because of this. What if we instead shop locally by foot or bike? Walmart deserves the credit for their efforts aimed to reduce GHG and yes their actions do make big impact. But things meant to be good may not always bring good results overall.

By: flo

flo — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:30:22 +0000

To Wal-mart, i think they do care about saving money and building business cases to carry out more green initiatives! But for the rest of us, you’re right, a quantifiable GHG/energy reduction is an impact and as a huge company, they can have huge impact.. but does that make you want to shop at walmart more? that’s what i can’t decide….

By: Walker

Walker — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:56:19 +0000

Who cares if they are doing it just to save money? Impact is impact as far as I’m concerned - the issues facing the planet and our communities are far too big to quibble about purity of intent. I say more power to them.

By: flo

flo — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:31:58 +0000

indeed, walmart is doing all these for good PR and to save operating cost. but it’s the magnitude of their “good PR and saving money” that seem to have quite significant GHG reductions that an individual can not really do on his/her own…… as a power house in retail, they have so much power - good and bad! that’s why i can’t decide whether i shall be in favour of walmart or not…….

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:46:44 +0000

WalMart is doing all these for their own good anyway- these actions look like saving energy but in fact they do so simply to save money, right?