Wal-Mart just released its sustainability report,a 59-page document that makes for interesting reading. It providesevidence both of how much the giant retailer has accomplished in thelast few years and of how much more needs to be done. I wrote a column about the report today for CNNMoney.com.

Tome, Wal-Mart is nothing less than the CSR turnaround story of all time.No company that I know of has made more progress on more issues ofcorporate responsibility more quickly than Wal-Mart.

Havingsaid that, I have some real doubts about WMT's capacity to achieve itsambitious sustainability goals. I think the company should set somehard greenhouse gas emissions targets, as others have done. I'd likeWMT to move forward more quickly on gay rights, by providing domesticpartner benefits to its people. And, of course, I wish WMT demonstratedmore respect for the rights of their workers to unionize.

Still - I'm deeply impressed with how far the company has come.

Here's how the column begins:

Here are some things you probably didn't know about Wal-Mart. Last year, the world's biggest retailer:

• Generated 20.4 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions
• Improved the efficiency of its fleet by 15%
• Sold 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs
• Stopped doing business with 2.3% of 8,873 overseas factories it audited because of poor labor conditions
• Paid an average hourly wage of $10.76
• Employed 15,695 American Indians
• Gave away $301 million in charitable contributions
• Encouraged its employees to lose weight, and heard back that they lost, collectively, 184,315 pounds

You can read the rest here.