Written by Madiha Boolani, Four Green Steps

Walmart has the highest revenue in the world. They are known and advertised as having the lowest prices for household products. But how eco friendly is the company? Does the lower cost come at a higher price paid by the environment?

Five years ago, Walmart decided it was going green, green, green and reduce energy and their carbon footprint. Walmart started its green initiative with its three goals of 1) 100 percent renewable energy; 2) Zero percent waste; and 3) Sustainable products for customers and the environment. The Walmart CEO at that time, Mike, truly believed that the initiative needed to start with the supply chain and not the stores. In response, within a few months the company was using 4 billion fewer plastic bags. Its trucks were delivering 70 million more boxes, while driving 100 million fewer miles.

According to the Harvard Business Review, “The payoffs are already showing up: One of the Sustainable Value Networks, tasked with fleet logistics, came up with a transportation strategy that improved efficiency by 38%, saving Walmart more than $200 million annually and cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by 200,000 tons per year.”

Over the years, their movement towards sustainability has progressed. Walmart is now the largest private producer of solar power in the United States, with nearly 40 stores fitted with photovoltaic arrays, and it's working on a prototype store that will cut energy use by 25 to 30 percent; between 2005 and 2008, it increased its trucking efficiency by 38 percent, with plans to have it doubled by 2015; it's working toward making all of its appliances Energy Star-rated; yearly, it spends $500 million on energy-efficient technology; and it's now developing a scorecard to rate the sustainability of its suppliers.

By installing small generators in its fleet of 7,200 big rig trucks so engines could be turned off while trucks were parked and taking other fuel efficiency measures, Walmart has saved $200 million a year in fuel costs. By shrinking the packaging on everything it sells by 5%, Walmart stands to save $3.4 billion a year, says Humes. Through efforts to increase recycling and reduce its waste, Walmart has shrunk its bill to haul trash to landfills. Additionally, Walmart is now promoting buying local organic produce as well as recycling waste by producing their EcoAdvantage line of environmentally friendly products for pets.

It sounds like Walmart is truly succeeding in going green. But this is only one side of the story.  The dramatic growth of big-box retailers like Walmart has also resulted in an exponential rise in the miles travelled by consumers for errands. According to the US Department of Transportation, between 1990 and 2001, the number of miles that the average American household drove each year for shopping grew by more than 40 percent

Walmart supercenters and parking lots can cover several acres of land, the construction of which causes removal of green fields or conversion of wetlands to retail space leading to increased flooding potential due to high surface runoff. Built away from town centers, they often require services such as new sewer lines, plus more roads and increased driving to reach them. They use massive amounts of electricity, often running 24-hours a day, the increased light causing night-glare and disrupting surrounding plant and animal life. Residents living nearby to new Walmarts often complain of increased traffic and noise pollution. Many times several supercenters are opened in close proximity of each other resulting in smaller stores being forced out of business and business being pulled away from other nearby Walmarts. When these stores go out of business, they leave behind unemployment as well as large retail spaces which remain unused and hence go to waste.

Furthermore, Walmart's new stores will use more electricity than its energy-efficiency measures will save. By making its existing outlets 20 percent more efficient, Walmart says it will cut CO2 emissions by 2.5 million metric tons by 2013. But new stores built within a year alone will consume enough electricity to add about 1 million metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere.

In conclusion, Walmart’s fleet of trucks, massive overseas shipping to import its goods, and the increasing vehicle miles traveled by its consumers all contribute heavily to CO2 emissions and the number of ozone-causing particulates released into the air. Its huge stores and even larger parking lots contribute to the degradation of our water supply, affecting our drinking water and the viability of aquatic life. Their efforts to go green have not gone unnoticed but are minuscule when compared to the magnitude of the situation.

Image courtesy of Creative Commons.

| More...