As a follow-up to the conversation we had tonight on Walmart's move into low-priced pharmaceuticals, what do people think about Walmart's "greening" efforts?
While a portion of these sustainability efforts may be attributed to "greenwashing," there is certainly a good business case to be made for the cost/energy savings Walmart is experiencing. As a global company, it also makes sense for Walmart to manage risks associated with climate change, resource shortages, potential policy changes, etc.
Given the scale of Walmart's operations, as well as the power it wields over its suppliers, Walmart's environmental improvements could have enormous impact (regardless of intention)...
Are there dangers in giving Walmart too much credit - or not enough?
5 comments:
Stacey, great question. In short I am all for Walmart's Greening efforts. Many people take moral issue with giving any praise to Walmart for their greening efforts. I think this is a case where we need to compartmentalize our praise and critique. Many people stated this in class.
The best analogy I have come up with is how would you treat the development of a person? When managing an employee who on certain tasks came up with effective, innovative solutions and was highly effective at implementing them, that person should be positively reinforced with praise to promote this type of behavior. Conversely, if on other tasks they bullied business partners, treated peers unfairly and degraded the ability to do long term business, then those behaviors should be criticized and guidance and action should be taken to help that employee discontinue those behaviors.
In either case it does not help the employee develop into an overall better asset to the company to disproportionately weight either behaviors. Moreover, when trying to turn around a troublesome employee it is all the more important for a manger to be extremely explicit in separating projects that should be praised and those that should be critiqued.
Relating this back to Wall-mart, I think of them as one of these troubled employees who possibly misguidedly so has shown an interest in changing. So we should give them a chance, help them develop through active compartmentalized encouragement and critique. Undoubtedly, Wall-mart has the potential to be a tremendous asset to influence sustainability practices if developed properly.
Adam Grossman
As Spiderman would say "With great power comes great responsibility." !
Walmart is definitely a poster child for a big box store with human rights issues.
However, their Sustainability 360 program is in the right direction.
Lee Scott said in his January address to the company:
"Now it certainly would be easy to talk about our merchandise and customer service. And just because I am not talking about these things doesn’t mean they are not important. They are. But because of your success and the success of your company, the world has great expectations of you. They expect you to play a bigger role. And you have both an opportunity and a responsibility to do that...
It is important for all of us to understand that there are a number of issues facing the world that will profoundly affect our lives and our company. I am talking to you about issues like international trade, climate change, water shortages, social and economic inequities, infrastructure and foreign oil.
You may be wondering: “What can Wal-Mart do about issues as big as these? What can I do?” I will tell you that people have always looked at Wal-Mart as a problem solver.
Over the course of nearly a half-century, we have helped hundreds of millions of people stretch their monthly budgets and make ends meet. But now people are looking at your company in a brand new light. They are seeing a retailer take on tough challenges and make a difference."
The increased public awareness of CSR may have instigated this, but if in the end, Walmart acts like it has a conscience and improves its processes even by 10%, would that not be a positive thing?
My thoughts are along the lines of what has already been expressed....
I don’t think Walmart will likely find itself in the position of getting too much credit for its “green” efforts. Although they are getting some support from environmentalist groups, they will always have critics in this and other areas of practice. The reality is that as long as people keep shopping at Walmart, Walmart will be around and a business of their size and with their growth will face continual challenges on how to be more efficient, more environmentally aware, a better employer, etc. It seems that by being more transparent (publishing reports and making public pledges), Walmart recognizes its unique position to make significant impact and is allowing the public to hold them more accountable to their promises.
I am going to proceed with healthy skepticism of Walmart’s “green” efforts. No matter the intentions, an attempt to be “green” is progress in the right direction, deserves some recognition to serve as positive reinforcement and should be judged based on the results, not on the effort itself.
I think that people are right to be skeptical of Wal-Mart's greenwashing, but I think they have done an excellent job in developing metrics and goals to reduce waste and increase the sustainability of their operations.
Wal-Mart has a long history of squeezing their suppliers and employees to provide value for shareholders and customers - and no one can deny that they have provided an enormous amount of value to those with lower incomes in the U.S. and abroad. The company has had a measurable reflect on reducing inflation in the U.S. They're not perfect, but I think they're doing much more good than harm.
Juan, I agree with your comment that Wal-Mart provides value to lower income customers and that has to be taken into account when we evaluate the degree of Walmart's social responsibility. Since Walmart's business model rests on its ability to offer low prices, I feel that their social responsibility efforts should not come at the expense of final consumers. While certain "irresponsible" as well as "responsible" activities receive plenty publicity and become more obvious than others, I think it is very important to have a measurement of the company's overall "net value" that would take into account inherent conflicts and yet capture whether the company's overall contribution to this world is positive or negative.
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