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Company Profile - Wal-Mart

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As one of the biggest companies in the world, Wal-Mart is bound to have a big carbon footprint. Their customers seek out the lowest prices, which limits Wal-Mart’s room to pay a premium for eco-friendly products. Despite these challenges, they have made some impressive strides in their quest to be seen as a ‘green’ company, though as we shall see, there is plenty more room for improvement.

Wal-Mart maintains some very lofty goals for themselves: “to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy; to create zero waste; and to sell products that sustain our natural resources and the environment.” Unfortunately, they do not include any specific timeline for these goals, which makes you question their credibility. They have, however, set out some benchmarks on the road:

Impressive, certainly, but a far cry from their lofty rhetoric above. Wal-Mart has launched a number of initiatives at all levels of their company to reach these targets. They have piloted a program called ‘Sustainable Value Networks’, which is designed to bring together stakeholders from within and outside the company to find ways to reduce their waste and improve their energy efficiency. Unlike other companies, Wal-Mart doesn’t seem to hide the fact that these gains will also improve their bottom line.

A number of positive initiatives have come from the program. Wal-Mart is testing a handful of high-efficiency stores that make use of better lighting, the natural landscape, and other factors. They are buying solar energy to run their stores and see themselves becoming one of the largest buyers in the US of solar energy. Their truck fleet, a major source of their emissions as they deliver products to stores all over the world, is making use of improved designs that will reduce wind resistance and cut the weight of the vehicle to help improve fuel efficiency.

One of their most important steps to date has been to work with suppliers to reduce the packaging and waste associated with the shipping of their products, which has the double benefit of less waste and emissions from the packaging materials, and fewer trucks required to deliver all their goods.

In their stores, Wal-Mart has made strides in providing their customers with more energy efficient products. They have sold over 145 million

energy saving CFL light bulbs. They offer reusable bags (at a cost). They plan to sell only Energy Star certified A/C units by 2010. And are considering selling hybrid or plug-in cars and possibly even providing the energy charging in their parking lots.

It is undeniable that Wal-Mart is concerned over their green image and has taken several steps in that direction, but they are far from perfect. Despite their high targets of not producing any carbon emissions, their short terms goals are far less ambitious. While they offer reusable bags for sale, they still provide plastic bags for free, which inevitably end up in a landfill (many UK stores are now charging for plastic bags and putting the revenue toward renewable energy sources).  And while their plans for hybrid and electric cars are noble, they remain just plans at the moment.

How do they stack up?

Business Strategy: 3.5/5 – will inevitably be hampered by their customers’ demands for the lowest prices but they clearly see the financial benefit of reducing energy use

Products & Services: 3/5 – while they brag about how many energy efficient light bulbs they sell, they also offer all of the energy sucking appliances found in the average home

Leading by Example: 3.5 – they have made progress in making their own operations more eco-friendly, and are working with suppliers to do the same but they still have a long way to go

Overall: 3.3

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