I’m feeling very frustrated this morning. Yesterday Wal-Mart issued a 60-page report on its sustainability efforts. There’s plenty of buzz on the report — including in this morning’s New York Times — but I’ll be fecked if I can find a copy of the report on line.

That’s unacceptable.

[Update -- my co-blogger Jonathan found the a link to the full report at Walmart Watch. Thank you, Jonathan.]

In reading Claudia Deutsch’s report in the Times, however a quote from Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott gave me pause. In a statement associated with the report, Scott said:

There is no conflict between our business model of everyday low costs and everyday low prices and being a more sustainable business.

What Scott says is perfectly true. There are plenty of low-hanging environmental fruit that Wal-Mart can pluck without having to alter its basic business model. By all appearances, the company is doing just that and when you’re the world’s largest retailer, snatching that even that easy fruit can make dramatic differences in energy consumption, solid-waste management and resource conservation.

But for Scott to say there is no conflict between his business model and his company being a more sustainable business is like me saying that there is no conflict between my three-pack-a-day cigarette habit and a healthy lifestyle. Yes, smoking 55 instead of 60 cigarettes a day would be more healthy, but in the long-term. I’d have to quit, drastically alter my health model, if I didn’t want to die a lot younger.

(Just for those who don’t know me, the above is only an illustration. I did have a three-pack-a-day habit in the ’70s, but I quit cold turkey for the final time on 5 December 1980.)

At some point, possibly in the near future, Wal-Mart’s business model is going to hit the sustainability wall. Then we’ll get a glimpse of how committed to sustainability Scott, or his successor is.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

Share on Facebook

This entry was posted on Friday, November 16th, 2007 at 0808 by Jeff Hess and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.