Retail titan Wal-Mart launches 'sustainability index'

[RandomGuy]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090716/bs_afp/usretailenvironmentwalmart

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US retail giant Wal-Mart on Thursday announced plans to develop a database that it said would revolutionize shopping by putting information about products' sustainability at consumers' fingertips.

The database, dubbed the sustainability index, could put information about how environmentally-friendly suppliers, manufacturers and their products are, just a garment label or barcode-scan away for shoppers, according to Wal-Mart executives speaking at a webcast gathering of their suppliers.

The index would be put together in three phases, the first of which involves surveying Wal-Mart's 100,000-plus suppliers about how they operate, where a product is made and what goes into it.

That stage got under way Thursday, when the 15-point survey was sent out to some US manufacturers.

The questionnaire covers everything from a manufacturer's greenhouse gas emissions and location of factories, to water use and solid waste disposal.

The next step in compiling the index will be to create a consortium of universities that would work with suppliers, retailers, NGOs and governments to develop the database.

A technology company is being sought by Wal-Mart to create an open platform to power the index, Wal-Mart chief executive Mike Duke told the meeting at the retail giant's headquarters in Arkansas.

Wal-Mart pledged to put up funds to get the index off the ground but Duke stressed that the database is not intended to benefit only the retail titan.

"It is not our goal to create or own this index. We want to spur the development of a common database that will allow the consortium to collect and analyze the knowledge of the global supply chain," Duke said.

The third and final phase would see the index up and running, and consumers accessing and benefiting from it.

John Fleming, chief merchandising officer for Wal-Mart, outlined how the index might work, while stressing that the end product was several years down the line.

Consumers might point their multi-application handheld devices at a product while shopping online or in-store to get information about the product.

With a T-shirt, they might see the field where the cotton came from, probably with a picture of the farmer, Fleming said.

"There would be information about how much cotton was used, how many 'product miles' were consumed to get that T-shirt into the store.

"That will make a difference in terms of what products customers consider," especially with future generations of consumers who care deeply about the environment and sustainability, he said.

[DarrinS]

From the title, I thought it might have something to do with product quality, but it's just some measure of a vendor's environmental friendliness?

:sleep

[Viva Las Espuelas]

al gore syndrome spreads

[baseline bum]

This makes sense, as all those Chinese factories 90% of Walmart's stock comes from are well-known examples of environmental restraint.

[RandomGuy]

From the title, I thought it might have something to do with product quality, but it's just some measure of a vendor's environmental friendliness?

:sleep

Correct. The ultimate goal here is to provide useful, valid, standardized, and trusted labels showing how much any given product damages the environment.

Wal-Mart, for all of its foibles, has been pushing green energy for a few years.

[baseline bum]

Correct. The ultimate goal here is to provide useful, valid, standardized, and trusted labels showing how much any given product damages the environment.

Wal-Mart, for all of its foibles, has been pushing green energy for a few years.

How can you say that with a straight face when you see the shit all the factories they buy from in China put into the air and water?

[Viva Las Espuelas]

This makes sense, as all those Chinese factories 90% of Walmart's stock comes from are well-known examples of environmental restraint.
bingo, but just like this administration, just shuffle your feet to give the impression of change.

[Extra Stout]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwash

[Spursmania]

al gore syndrome spreads


This makes sense, as all those Chinese factories 90% of Walmart's stock comes from are well-known examples of environmental restraint.

[coyotes_geek]

Good for Wal Mart. I've got no problems with them doing this. The green movement belongs in the hands of businesses and consumers, not the government.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Good for Wal Mart. I've got no problems with them doing this. The green movement belongs in the hands of businesses and consumers, not the government.
they're doing it before they're forced to. remember wal mart isn't union also.

[DarkReign]

Correct. The ultimate goal here is to provide useful, valid, standardized, and trusted labels showing how much any given product damages the environment.

Wal-Mart, for all of its foibles, has been pushing green energy for a few years.

...and youre confident that WalMart is going to objectivly assess their products according to their own standards?

La-la Land. First, this system will have no impact on the people who purchase useless shit at WalMart. I am sure the local trailer-trash gives all sorts of shit about environmental friendliness. They cant spell "environment" much less give a shit about it.

Second, it is not in WalMart's best interest that their customers do care about such a thing. FantasyWorld for a moment: the White Castle crowd suddenly cared immensely about the environment. Upon seeing all the shit made in mass-polluting China, they no longer buy said shit. WalMart's bottom line just went through the floor, seeing as over half the shit they sell (outside food) is made in mass-polluting, cheap labor, shitty standard of living hell-holes.

I foresee no impact on purchasing decisions and no objectivity from WalMart in regards to those decisions.

[TeyshaBlue]

Correct. The ultimate goal here is to provide useful, valid, standardized, and trusted labels showing how much any given product damages the environment.

Wal-Mart, for all of its foibles, has been pushing green energy for a few years.

If a project like this can be done, Wal-Mart will be the company to do it. They have supply chain economics down to a science.

[ElNono]

...and youre confident that WalMart is going to objectivly assess their products according to their own standards?

La-la Land. First, this system will have no impact on the people who purchase useless shit at WalMart. I am sure the local trailer-trash gives all sorts of shit about environmental friendliness. They cant spell "environment" much less give a shit about it.

Second, it is not in WalMart's best interest that their customers do care about such a thing. FantasyWorld for a moment: the White Castle crowd suddenly cared immensely about the environment. Upon seeing all the shit made in mass-polluting China, they no longer buy said shit. WalMart's bottom line just went through the floor, seeing as over half the shit they sell (outside food) is made in mass-polluting, cheap labor, shitty standard of living hell-holes.

I foresee no impact on purchasing decisions and no objectivity from WalMart in regards to those decisions.

+1
I wouldn't mind something like this being out there in Walmart for those that give a shit about the whole green movement. But in order to be anything but a farce, the data itself needs to come from some independent firm that specializes in those readings and has no ulterior motives with said products.

[101A]

i foresee no impact on purchasing decisions and no objectivity from walmart in regards to those decisions.

+1

(except somehow Wal-Mart will make a buck or a trillion off of it)

[SonOfAGun]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwash

ding ding ding.

and guys like RG eat it up haha

GE is the bomb yo! They really do care!

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

I can't wait until Pelosi and the Messiah decide this is a great idea and mandate it on all products purchased, or hell even services offered.

This country is so fucked. Liberalism and environmentalism aren't ideologies, they're viruses. :td

[baseline bum]

If a project like this can be done, Wal-Mart will be the company to do it. They have supply chain economics down to a science.

Their supply chain economics is arbitrage; exploit cheap-ass Chinese labor and strong-arm American companies into doing their manufacturing there.

[TeyshaBlue]

Their supply chain economics is arbitrage; exploit cheap-ass Chinese labor and strong-arm American companies into doing their manufacturing there.

Dude, when they were in their "Buy American" heyday, they were running net financial inventories near $0.

That's what happens when you completely understand purchasing and distribution.

[RandomGuy]

...and youre confident that WalMart is going to objectivly assess their products according to their own standards?

La-la Land. First, this system will have no impact on the people who purchase useless shit at WalMart. I am sure the local trailer-trash gives all sorts of shit about environmental friendliness. They cant spell "environment" much less give a shit about it.

Second, it is not in WalMart's best interest that their customers do care about such a thing. FantasyWorld for a moment: the White Castle crowd suddenly cared immensely about the environment. Upon seeing all the shit made in mass-polluting China, they no longer buy said shit. WalMart's bottom line just went through the floor, seeing as over half the shit they sell (outside food) is made in mass-polluting, cheap labor, shitty standard of living hell-holes.

I foresee no impact on purchasing decisions and no objectivity from WalMart in regards to those decisions.

Wal-Mart is doing it because they perceive a demand for this type of information on the part of consumers, and if they don't do it, someone will beat them to it.

The average person who shops at warmart probably does care about this stuff, and that is apparently enough for them. I would guess they have data you don't about such things, as they have a *little* bit of money to spend on market research data, no offense.

[RandomGuy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwash

Yup. If I had more time on my lunch hour I would have added a bit about this, thanks for posting the link.

There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that walmart's sole motivation in all of this is to make more money, as it should be.

I *do* find it to be a good place where profit motive and ethical behavior line up.

[RandomGuy]

ding ding ding.

and guys like RG eat it up haha

GE is the bomb yo! They really do care!

You don't know me very well.

S'okay. I probably make similar mistaken assumptions about you here and there.

[baseline bum]

Dude, when they were in their "Buy American" heyday, they were running net financial inventories near $0.

That's what happens when you completely understand purchasing and distribution.

They stopped making money because they made too many stores that were competing with each other. So the traitorous fuckers decided to undermine our manufacturing sector to keep themselves from collapsing under their own weight.