Treehugger.com, March 12, 2012
Perhaps no other corporation elicits such strong reactions in the environmental community as Walmart—thanks largely to the impact the mega-retailer has on communities’ small businesses and development patterns, contrasted with pledges to green up their act and potential market impact if the reality ever meets the rhetoric. The latest independent assessment of that gap between talking about and walking the green path comes via the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Stacy Mitchell.
Mitchell did an excellent series of posts on Walmart’s eco-credibility for Grist not too long ago. Much of the info in the Walmart’s Greenwash report overlaps with that series, but now it’s all compiled in a handy 31-page PDF.
It’s definitely worth checking out, especially in combination with Mother Jones’ recent reporting on how Walmart’s sustainability efforts in their supply chain are and aren’t being put into practice (mostly aren’t, the article concludes, at least not to the degree the Bentonville marketing department would have you believe).
