The mega-company is called Walmart and its – or his/her, because corporations are people – motto is Save Money. Live Better. I will venture a guess that – ahem – about 99% of this blog’s readers do not believe that Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest private employer and largest public corporation, allows our global community to live better.
And perhaps this is true. I mean, the company distributes a lot of stuff that we don’t really need, makes messes while figuring out how to deliver these things, and is really and truly the antithesis of local. Over the past decade, communities from South Korea to Argentina to Germany to Canada have fought Walmart’s entrance into their neighbourhoods. The company’s labour practices have been called into question. Oh, and their logo is a friggin’ Sun!
And perhaps there is more to Walmart’s unstoppable and pervasive global presence than most people know. Perhaps the company – or s/he – deserves a bit more credit for the very high standard of environmentally-friendly business practices that it – or s/he – demonstrates to all the other multi-national corporations out there.
For example, check out this totally unbiased footage from a documentary about sustainability that involves Walmart:
Thoughts? Feelings? Zero waste?
Okay, so this isn’t technically from a “documentary” – it’s from Walmart.com’s Press Room. Still, the message is a compelling one. Especially since I’m pretty sure that the word “environment” isn’t used once by anyone in the video. The corporation – s/he – has the goal of making zero waste because such a thing is good, if not great, business.
Also, Walmart is the global distributor of stuff-we-don’t-need and this means that s/he holds a lot of power in terms of what kind of packaging in which suppliers wrap the things that we don’t really need. To say the least, Walmart can bring change from global to local more efficiently than our local retailers, the store’s sale of millions of LED lightbulbs will do more to lower household electricity use than any Canadian or American government policies ever could.
In the world of triple-bottom-line sustainability – where financial, natural and human capital are all ingredients to the shared value created by a business – Walmart has always been found wanting when it comes to taking care of people; however, the innovative employment opportunities – based on cooperative principles – demonstrated in emerging markets like Brazil are pretty darn interesting. And, for the record, many local small businesses pay and treat their employees terribly, too. At the end of the day, though, treating people well is also good for business, so don’t be surprised if Walmart finally gets there, too.
Finally, I just have to say that, as an amateur humourist, the idea that Walmart’s Zero Waste initiative probably began with a bunch of c-suite people brainstorming what could, should and would be crushed in the Cram-a-lot is just plain hilarious.
Um, so I guess I’ll wrap up by saying, um, thanks Walmart? [Editor’s note: this feels weird…].
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Masthead photo courtesy of Walmart Stores