Wal-Mart to carbon check suppliers |
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| Written by Harpers Editorial team | |||||||||||||
| Monday, 24 September 2007 | |||||||||||||
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US retail giant Wal-Mart is to ask 68,000 suppliers to provide information about their emissions footprint. Around 30 companies in seven product areas will be initiallly targeted: beer, DVDs, milk, soap, soft drinks, toothpaste and vacuum cleaners.
The full reporting from over 60,000 suppliers will be the largest single survey of carbon impact ever conducted. According to Jim Stanway, head of global supply at Wal-Mart: "Our objective here is to find efficiencies in the supply chain." He added: "If we remove carbon, which equates to energy, which equates to cost, we fulfil our objective of getting low prices to the customer and having a positive environmental impact."
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john spiers
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Excellent move - many carbon neutral products (even wine)already available but not being seriously prioritised by retailers |
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john spiers
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Excellent move - many carbon neutral products (even wine)already available but not being seriously prioritised by retailers |
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Shaka Freeman
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And is Wal-Mart going to make money off this information, or manipulate it to make more sales? I'm sure they are. Is Wal-Mart also going to look into the conditions of its suppliers' workers overseas, or at least give its workers in the U.S. a living wage? Probably not. It seems like this "positive environmental impact" PR move is just Wal-Mart's new spin on its taking advantage of workers to make an efficient "supply chain" at the maximum profit for its already Forbes-list-topping, multi-billionaire owners. At least its PR department is operating within the right discourse of reducing carbon to combat global climate change, however I'm very skeptical of an enormous multi-national corporation that does not provide adequate wages or health care for its American workers, claiming now to do something for the environment. I'd say that change needs to start at home--you need to focus first on giving people a living wage before you start worrying about how many carbon offsets you need to buy in a PR stunt to draw more customers. |
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