How Green is Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Set to Create New Sustainability Index Recently, US retail giant Wal-Mart made a big announcement relating to its plans to create a database which would reveal how "green" its suppliers, manufacturers, and their products are. According to Wal-Mart they would create what is called a sustainability index that would be implemented over a series of three phases. This would include analyzing over 100,000 of its suppliers and understanding how they operate, where a product is made, and its environmental policies (such as greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and solid waste disposal). This is a huge step in what ultimately may influence how people ... Read Full Story

Walmart stores across Mexico and their suppliers* have launched for “Earth Month” (April 16 to May 3) an aggressive environmental awareness campaign in the press, radio and television promoting sustainable products and showing that purchasing them does not hurt the customers’ budgets. “At Wal-Mart de México we work hand-in-hand with our suppliers to encourage them to [...] Read Full Story

Mexico’s Superama supermarket chain, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart de Mexico, has launched a campaign to collect and recycle plastic shopping bags. The chain hopes to recycle at least one million bags annually, and notes that if they only meet (but not excede, as they hope to do) this goal, they will save 59.6 metric tons [...] Read Full Story

From Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart Mexico Inaugurates Largest Sun-Operated Photovoltaic Installation in Latin America 1,056 solar panels were installed on the roof of Bodega Aurrera Aguascalientes 140 tons of CO2 emissions will be eliminated Solar panels will generate 20% of the store’s energy requirements for a full year Wal-Mart Mexico successfully concluded the installation of a photovoltaic complex that will generate 20% [...] Read Full Story

Wal-Mart Central America is pursuing an interesting strategy to achieve its announced target of a 50% reduction in plastic bag use in its more than 500 stores in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua by 2013. Whereas its brethren in Brazil have elected to offer discounts for consumers bringing their own alternatives to [...] Read Full Story