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Archimedes said "Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the earth," when explaining the principle of levers.

Leverage is the big news about Walmart's announcement today. The company has committed to reducing 20 million metric tons of carbon pollution from its products' lifecycle and supply chain over the next five years. That's equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 3.8 million cars.

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Though it gets a little fluffy in places, Walmart’s “Sustainabilty 2.0″ video (from about two years ago) is worth a watch. It’s a 90 minute epic all about a huge number of ways that the company is making effort and change toward sustainability. It’s also very transparent about unsolved issues. The video talks about the unintended consequences of bringing people out of poverty (consumption), the catch-22s of organic cotton growing, and the company’s own shortcomings in dealing with e-waste. Walmart is perhaps a little too optimistic that it’s on the road to solving just about everything, but the issues are dealt with thoroughly and simply. My opinion is that by putting such things in front of the audience optimistically, the audience retains the message better and is more inspired to act (in contrast the doom and gloom approach).

walmart sustainability video

Walmart, said it will use light emitting diode lights from Cree in new stores and retrofitted ones. In the first year, that will come to 650 stores alone.

The stores will replace ceramic metal halide lights, those honkers you see in the ceiling of big box retailers. The Cree bulbs will emit the same amount of light as a 70-watt bulb but use 82% less power.

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A big development in the sustainability business field over the last few weeks was the announcement of the Sustainability Product Index. I applaud Walmart for this program and we have seen that their enormous market power is an effective tool for moving the bar in sustainable business practices.

I thought it would be interesting to take a crack at answering the survey from a Nortel perspective. I want to emphasize that this is not Nortel's official response to the survey; I have only attempted to scratch the surface and indicate the direction of our response to the survey. We would obviously elaborate further on our programs and results for the October deadline imposed by Walmart.

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HP developed a sturdy and stylish messenger bag and put the HP Pavilion dv6929wm Entertainment Notebook PC inside.
The unique HP Protect Messenger Bag guards the notebook during shipping and is put directly on a Walmart shelf. Customers leave Walmart with just their new notebook, accessories and a convenient, reusable messenger bag— and avoid the hassle and waste of boxes and excess packaging.

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Walmart has just unveiled its new Sustainability Index, a project that's been in the works for more than a year, but which is -- finally, after much anticipation and more than a little handwringing by industry, activists, and others -- part of the public discourse. The advance stories over the past few days have been amped up to the point of breathlessness, involving adjectives like "huge" (perhaps) and "audacious" (probably), with one story suggesting the Index will "shake the world" (um, no comment). Such hyperbole is understandable: any green commitment that Walmart makes is potentially a big deal.
But now that reality has hit, it's time to take a more sober assessment of what's really going on here.

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Children who are forced to pick cotton in Uzbekistan, farmers scratching out a living in Guatemala and salmon fishermen in Bristol Bay, Alaska, would not seem to have much in common. But all are feeling the global impact of Wal-Mart.

As the world's largest retailer, with $379 billion in revenues last year, Wal-Mart has long been a powerful force in the global economy - a bully, its critics would say. For years, they assailed Wal-Mart for squeezing suppliers over costs, driving mom-and-pop stores out of business or crushing efforts to organize its workers.

These days, though, the company is winning praise for using its leverage - that's a polite term for bullying - to protect the environment and help the poor.

walmart sustainability