I can’t believe I’m saying it, but Wal-Mart deserves more money. I think it should get paid for its green initiatives, which seem a helluva lot more sincere and real than any of the CSR marketing nonsense that passes for environmental responsibility at other companies.
It started down a path in 2005 to remake its business based on principles of sustainability, with some frightening huge long-term goals:
- Running operations solely on renewable energy
- Creating zero waste
- Selling only products that sustain the earth's resources and environment
It also shared its intentions with its suppliers, which dared them into embracing similar goals, if not explicitly or for their own businesses overall, at least for the products and services they hoped to sell in Wal-Mart stores. P&G ramped up development and production of concentrated laundry detergent. GE starting making lots more fluorescent light bulbs.
Now, people can have legitimate issues with Wal-Mart. Employee salaries and benefits are contentious points, as is union organizing. The uber-economic role it plays in replacing local, inefficient manufacturers and suppliers with distant, efficient vendors has massive implications for communities (its provision of low prices to consumers requires them to unwittingly stop being producers).
You could even question the motives behind its green initiative. But I would ask why? Who cares what its leadership is thinking? As a matter of fact, let's just presume that Wal-Mart does nothing for the greater good. Altruism isn't a word that appears in its employee handbooks. Building a sustainable business, and selling sustainable economy products, is pure, mercenary contrivance, intended to do nothing but enrich Wal-Mart and its shareholders.
Good. That's exactly the sort of corporate responsibility we need. Skip all the branding nonsense about "having a conversation about our energy future," or symbolic donations to charitable causes.
The real drivers of brand equity don't reside in the imaginations of communicators, but rather in the spreadsheets of business operators.
We should be less concerned with what companies say, and more with what they do. And that’s not just when it comes to green initiatives. Any claim of a product or service attribute should have its basis in some actual thing(s) a company actually does.
At least on this issue, Wal-Mart is a company to emulate. I wonder why it's not doing a better job driving consumers with the info. It could probably see more green for all the green it's seeing.
