Wal-Mart Goes Green in a Big Way

2009-07-16 | 07:44

Retail to devise green labeling standard.

What's better for the environment, Green Works or Seventh Generation, or maybe Method? Who's to say? How about Wal-Mart. The world's largest retailer is making good on its threat to develop a rating system to measure the sustainability of its supply chain.

Wal-Mart has been working on its"sustainability index" for more than a year, and observers say it will take another year or two for labels to appear on products. For now, Wal-Mart intends to announce the sustainability index at a meeting today at its corporate headquarters in Bentonville, AK, to which hundreds of suppliers, academics, environmentalists and government officials have been invited.

But the company's grand scheme will require manufacturers of consumer products to dig deep into their supply chains, measure their environmental impact and compete on those terms for favorable treatment from the world's most powerful retailer.

For now, the company will unveil a sustainability consortium led by the University of Arkansas and Arizona State University that will provide scientific research to support the effort. Faculty at Duke, Harvard, Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Michigan have been involved in planning the index, but they haven't yet agreed to join the consortium, in part because some college administrators are skittish about working with Wal-Mart.

Consumer-goods companies Procter & Gamble (PG, news, msgs), General Mills (GIS, news, msgs), Tyson Foods (TSN, news, msgs) and Unilever (UN, news, msgs), among others, are partners in the consortium. And competing retailers including Costco Wholesale (COST, news, msgs), Target (TGT, news, msgs) and Kroger (KR, news, msgs) have been invited to join.