Browse
Engage
Research
The World Environment Center and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are working together to foster cleaner production and improved energy efficiency practices among more than two dozen company suppliers in El Salvador and Guatemala.
The nonprofit organization that advances sustainable development and the retailing giant announced the partnership yesterday, the same day the project launched in Guatemala. The project launches in El Salvador tomorrow.
Dignitaries representing the respective host countries and their ministries of economy and environment, the U.S. Department of State, WEC, Wal-Mart, local business associations and other stakeholders attended ceremonies in yesterday and are expected to so again on Thursday.
In the project that is funded through the State Department's "Cleaner Production Private Sector Partnerships" program, the WEC will work with small and medium-sized suppliers for Wal-Mart in the two countries.
The organization plans to provide technical assistance to help improve energy and water savings and reduce waste, raw material use and emissions. The technical assistance also applies to helping to put environmental management systems in place and assess financial resources.
The project is to be overseen by WEC's operations for Latin America in San Salvador.
The partnership is the latest in a series of Wal-Mart's efforts — domestic and international — to bring greater environmental responsibility to the operations of the company and its business partners.
Among the more sweeping moves on the international front was the company's announcement last fall of its global responsible sourcing initiative, which corporate leaders unveiled at their business summit in Beijing.
The project begun in Central America this week is intended to complement that effort, Hannah Smith, manager for Wal-Mart's international corporate affairs, told GreenBiz.
The company has worked with communities in Central America since 1998 through Wal-Mart Centroamérica. Projects have included partnering with local farmers, education and nutrition programs, disaster relief and help for disabled children.
Wal-Mart Centroamérica is the region's largest retailer, with 486 stores in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
John G.
It wasn't so long ago American factories were belching smoke and slumlords controlled the miserable lifestyles of the workers..
China is going through a process. Farmers sons and daughters are moving to China's cities - lured by high wages of factories.
It won't be long before Chinese laborers clamor for working wages, sanitary working conditions, clean air and sustainable enterprises.
Walmart will be forced to find the next underprivileged country with cheap labor and lax labor and environmental standards. However, those countries too may improve over time.
This is probably not the most ideal way to bring about change - much damage and suffering will occur before things get better. But no "well wisher" has implemented a better method than good old capitalism followed by people wizening up as their situation improves.
Anonymous
It's difficult to know how green a product really is. For instance, we could be buying a christmas tree ornament made in a smoke-belching factory somewhere in Southern China, managed by slumlords - and never know it.
So information is power and yet we, as North-American consumers, are blissfully ignorant of the provenance of the imported items we purchase.
Someone once promoted the idea that imported clothing should sport a label that indicates the garment was not made by sweatshop labor. Importers could be held legally accountable once the label was affixed. Needless to say - that idea didn't get very far!
Wal-Mart: Still Less Green Than Advertised
That's a very thoughtful comment, Mr. Bunch... and while I agree with you that Wal-Mart is in a position to "wield great influence" on corporate sustainability, unfortunately what we've seen so far is farcical.
They can say that they are "greening", and in these times the saying of that is certainly helpful to their bottom line... but the proof is in the pudding. And Wal-Mart's business practices continue to be disastrous.
I do some work with Wake-Up Wal-Mart; we have lots and lots of Wal-Mart horror stories here:
www dot wakeupwalmart dot com
Educating future sustainable business leaders
Wal-Mart is making inroads into a subject area that is critically important for both their business and for society, yet is fraught with potentially conflicting forces. As one of the world's biggest retailers, Wal-Mart can wield great influence on corporate sustainability practices -- and, for that matter, national environmental policy, especially in developing economies. On the other hand, it's a discounter whose bottom-line focus is inescapable.
The truth is that sustainability policy has matured to be a bottom line issue. It's not just about replacing light bulbs to save money on electricity anymore -- it's a deeper sense that, ultimately, greening the entire supply chain from source to shopper has to be made sustainable for any business to succeed. Greening their retail outlets and their supply chain are important, and challenging, first steps, but it will be intriguing to see if and how green consumerism takes root in an economy and culture sharply different than in the US.
As the head of an academic institute (erb.umich.edu) that is focused exclusively on sustainable business research and strategy and that has an active dialogue with Wal-Mart, I am intrigued by how the company could influence not just business practices already in place, but the schools that educate people who will be in charge of business strategy in the future. I'd love to know peoples' thoughts on the right role for corporations in working with institutes like ours.
Rick Bunch
Managing Director
Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise
University of Michigan
rbunch@bus.umich.edu