In the aftermath of a conference on sustainable packaging, a group of us were presented with this question:

While Wal-Mart stil obviously lurks as a key driver of many sustainability goals, I'm wondering whether companies have progressed beyond Wal-Mart's directives. In other words, if Wal-Mart were to abandon its Scorecard tomorrow, would brand owners and packaging suppliers continue to move forward with their sustainability goals or would they jump off that bandwagon?

One of my fellow observers commented:

If Wal-Mart were to abandon its Scorecard tomorrow (which it won't), it would have little impact on the sustainability movement overall because manufacturers--large and small--are coming to realize that the principal driver of sustainability is economic.

I agree--with the following proviso. While there's a powerful economic logic behind less-wasteful, sustainable packaging, it is obviously the case that Wal-Mart's packaging edict has dramatically increased the interest in it and accelerated the progress being made on this front.

If Wal-Mart abandoned its initiative, or went in a different direction, it would have a huge impact on packaging simply due to its direct economic clout with its suppliers. When Wal-Mart sneezes, 60,000 suppliers catch cold.

Wal-Mart's packaging guidelines are like a private regulation, the issuance of which has something like the effect of law. It's one thing to acknowledge that pollution equals financial waste, but very few companies would move forward (at least to the degree they have) without the pressure exerted by regulation.

What's interesting to me about Wal-Mart's guidelines, and about the sustainable packaging movement in general, is that they require the active cooperation of the entire value chain, more so than most sustainability issues I have encountered. Wal-Mart is very far down the chain which, in addition to its size and clout, is why its action has the potential to be game-changing, not just for its direct suppliers, but for theirs and theirs and theirs.

Now if the Sustainable Packaging Coalition could figure out how to get Wal-Mart one step further down the chain--to consumers--that would truly change the game. The retailer has just announced that it reached its goal of selling 100 million low impact fluorescent bulbs, and ahead of schedule at that. Imagine if they could figure out how to get customers into the stores around recycling!