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The Greening of Wal-Mart

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In 1989, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. launched one of the first major retail campaigns to sell environmentally safe products in recyclable or biodegradable packaging. The corporation promoted these products by labeling them with green-colored shelf tags. Although there were over 300 green products at its peak, Wal-Mart didn’t directly set or monitor supplier environmental standards. This resulted in negative publicity for Wal-Mart when the public learned that a green-labeled brand of paper towels had only a recycled tube – the towels were virgin paper treated with chlorine bleach! The green tag program waned, and by the mid-1990s environmental issues seemed to have slipped off the company’s list of priorities. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart’s reputation among consumers was also slipping. Issues surrounding its competitive practices and labor policies loomed large in the public eye. The company’s environmental record was nothing to boast about, either. Indeed, a 2005 McKinsey & Company study found that 2-8% of customers had stopped shopping at Wal-Mart because of the company’s practices. Against this backdrop, Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. unveiled a new plan to reduce the company’s environmental footprint. In an October 2005 speech broadcast to all 1.6 million employees in all 6,000-plus stores and shared with some […]

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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: June 12, 2008

World’s Top Energy Ministers Launch Energy Efficiency Effort DOE and Partners to Offer Prize for Efficient Lighting GM Shifts Away from Trucks and SUVs, Toward Cars and Crossovers Toyota Doubles the Range of its Fuel Cell Vehicle Duke Energy Plans to Add Solar Power to 850 North Carolina Sites Connecticut to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions 80% by 2050 World’s Top Energy Ministers Launch Energy Efficiency Effort The energy ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries and from China, India, and South Korea agreed this weekend to establish the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC).The IPEEC will serve as a high-level forum for facilitating a broad range of actions that yield significant gains in energy efficiency. The partnership will support the on-going energy efficiency work of the participating countries and relevant international organizations by exchanging information on best practices, policies, and efforts to collect data. The IPEEC members will also develop public-private partnerships for improving energy efficiency, participate in joint research and development efforts, and facilitate the dissemination of energy-related products and services. The energy ministers plan to hold the first IPEEC meeting before the end of the year. See the IPEEC declaration (PDF 26 KB). The G8, […]

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