Wal-Mart Reports On Its Experiment With A 'Green Store'
Wal-Mart issues a one-year progress report on its experimental eco-store in Aurora, Colorado.
Wal-Mart releases a report today on progress at its year-old, experimental eco-store in Aurora, Colorado. Wal-Mart is trumpeting its successes, from waterless urinals to LED lights in its freezers, and acknowledging its challenges, such as wind turbines that have short-circuited and recycled rubber sidewalks that have warped and faded.
The mega-behemoth has also met with Target, Costco, and other competitors to try to gain allies (and drive costs down) as it seeks to green its other stores. While progressives shiver at the company's labor record, they're praising these new steps. "None of this is 'greenstanding,'" says Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. "They deserve the chance to show that their business model is compatible with high standards, not just low prices." High standards are swell and all, but Wal-Mart execs emphasize that the real reason for the shift is to save the company and its customers money. And the good press doesn't hurt.
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Not seeing the forest...
When an economic mega-force like Wal-Mart decides to go green, I see a great number of benefits. However, what Wal-Mart and many of those cheering on its green effort forget is that they still locate the vast majority of their stores in completey auto-dependent environments. Thus, nullifying many of the positives associated with their green store. It's akin to the location of The Rocky Mountain Institute.
The greenest thing Wal-mart could do is to scale down their stores to fit into traditional built contexts. However, most places rightfully do not want the behemoth in the downtown, especially larger urban environments where independents still have a fighting chance. Hmm...
Green Wal-Mart = Oxymoron
I agree. Whatever they do with their store buildings, the fact is that they generate more automobile use, gasoline consumption, and pollution by putting their stores in auto-oriented locations and displacing local businesses that are closer to people's homes. Often, their locations are greenfields at the edge of town, which should have been preserved as open space.
Plus: they are heavily reliant on products that are imported long distances, using more energy and producing more CO2 emissions than locally produced products. Of course, this is true of the modern economy in general, but I am sure that Wal-Mart is worse than most.
Charles Siegel