Ahhhh Ahhhh Ahhhh! I got the Promo Xtra email (a marketing newsletter) this morning in my work inbox, scrolled through the headlines to see what would catch my eye and saw the headline: Wal-Mart Goes Green with Earth Month Campaign
I had heard a bit about this but finally had time to digest it so I clicked on the accompanying article and started to have many mixed emotions about it. Main emotion? Aggravation.
Here's the jist: Wal-Mart has this month-long campaign this April (Earth Month) as part of its push to show their shoppers that dear ol' Wal -Mart cares about the environment and that shopping green can be affordable, too! As we all know, we normally have to pay slightly more for eco-products so Wal-Mart is doing a good thing, right?
The article goes on to say that they will be showcasing more than 50 green products in their stores (otherwise known as a cross-promotion of sorts for corporations) ranging from Ultra Tide's cold water detergent, Coca-Cola with their branded t-shirts made out of recycled plastic bottles, and will be offering Fair Trade organic products in order to offer income to small scale farmers. They will also be giving away 1 million custom made reusable bags on April 19th -- Earth Day eve -- which, by the by, I believe they should go a step further and ban plastic bags altogether!!
Wal-Mart's Earth Month Campaign. Sounds noble of them, right? But this all just doesn't rub me the right way!
I proceeded to IM my sister (who happens to work for a fair trade supporting non-profit org) and we both vented about this and agree that we are both on the fence about this whole thing.
Pros? Yes, Wal-Mart (a store we loathe with every fiber of our body) is making lower-income people not feel left out of the eco-loop by having them be able to purchase eco-friendly products at a low price. But it's still Wal-Mart! And this is all just some ploy to gloss over their evils!
Let's start off with the Tide coldwater detergent. Correct me if I am wrong but I have a hunch that is is NOT biodegradable so although it may help conserve energy it is still wrought full of harmful chemicals. (Just did a quick little dig on the product and people seem to have the same
sentiments about its non-eco friendly ingredients).
How about the Coca-Cola t-shirts made with recycled plastic bottles? Nifty idea but...how about Coca-Cola's tie to human rights violations in Colombia? Abuse and murder, anyone?
Great, Wal-Mart wants to carry fair trade organic items in their stores to provide decent wages/income to small scale farmers but how about them not treating their own employees well enough?
So yeah, I dunno. I mean, I don't even like Wal-Mart anyway but should I just turn the other way and applaud them for their efforts even though I know it's all this sham? Plagues my mind...
Thoughts on this greenwashing?
Friday, April 4, 2008
Wal-Mart's "Earth Month" Campaign
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2 comments:
I never thought I'd be defending Wal-Mart, but I actually think that of all companies to claim are doing 'greenwashing,' Wal-Mart would be one of the last on my list. They've set some ambitious goals for themselves-- such as zero waste and 100% renewable energy-- and have moved whole industries forward (thinking CFLs, packaging, solar financing, even heavy-duty trucks). It is my gut feeling that Tide wouldn't have even made cold water soap if not for pressure from Wal-Mart (coupled with competitive pressure from Method). Wal-Mart isn't great on all fronts, and there's many things to complain about, but their sustainability goals isn't one of them.
If you're going to gripe, I think you've appropriately targeted some of your anger at the suppliers to WM, who could be doing more. Many of these companies are responding to Wal-Mart's demands but haven't fully embraced sustainability themselves, developing products that pass WM's test but aren't as good as they could be.
Wal-Mart isn't going to disappear anytime soon, and I'm happy to see that they've embraced sustainability at the highest levels (it's frequently championed by CEO Lee Scott). They've received tons of good press and cost savings for it, and rightfully so. The negative is that it has clouded a lot of their other problems (human rights, economic development, etc), but this is one case that I have to defend a company for claims of greenwashing.
For anyone interested in reading a followup..
http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_greening_of_wal_mart/
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