Reporting on the various “green” initiatives coming out of bentonville is getting to be a bit of a cliche, not to mention straying dangerously toward greenwashing, but I have to commend this particular piece of news coming out of Kansas City. A new “supercenter” will be built there paying particular mind to energy efficiency in both the operations of the store itself as well as the products it offers.
I have to take it with a grain of salt in that Wal Mart still does next to nothing to address the impact of their lack of employee health care coverage on a community, not to mention their encouragement of car dependent suburban sprawl that a super center inevitable produces (easily negating the societal benefits of a greener store). But still, this is still something worth praising – if for no other reason than the big time media attention it gets which has the benefit of not only giving wal mart good, pr, but also making energy efficiency palatable for mainstream American business who will likely seek to emulate wal mart’s efforts.
Another “Greener” Wal Mart – Kansas City
By Nick Aster | January 18th, 2007 
3 Comments
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Comments
January 19, 2007 at 9:03 am PST | Michael writes:
Although I hear a lot about it, I’ve never quite understood the science that links Wal-Mart’s employee benefit plan to a store’s energy efficiency. I would really appreciate an explanation of that, there must be some issue of thermodynamics that I don’t grasp.
January 20, 2007 at 14:11 pm PST | blue-dot-green writes:
Being “green” is a much wider concept than just achieving energy efficiency. A well balanced and fair employee benefit plan ensures the ‘well-being’ of the employees and hence very crucial for corporations trying to promote themselves as “green” businesses.
January 21, 2007 at 20:08 pm PST | Marc Gunther writes:
Can Wal-Mart really be blamed for its contribution to “car dependent suburban sprawl?” That’s where its customers have opted to live. No retailer can be expected to locate only in urban areas. And Wal-Mart is exploring selling ethanol for flex-fuel cars, in part to promote greener cars.