This November, millions will go to the polls to cast votes in the midterm elections. In addition to electing candidates, some voters have a unique opportunity to directly shape their local energy system. Initiatives on the ballot in Portland, Ore., Washington state, and Colorado, present opportunities and new models for advancing local renewable energy, climate goals, and energy democracy.… Read More
This month, The Sun magazine features ILSR Co-Director Stacy Mitchell in an extended Q&A about the consequences of Amazon’s tightening grip and what it will take to revive America’s left-behind cities and towns.… Read More
In this episode of our podcast, Building Local Power, ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell interviews Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First about the tax incentive packages that governments give to big corporations, and how local governments can do economic development better.… Read More
More than a decade after Walmart pledged to become an environmental leader, the company’s climate emissions continue to rise, according to data released today by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR). ILSR found that Walmart has scaled back its renewable power projects in the U.S. The amount of renewable energy the company derives from its clean energy projects and special purchases fell by 16% since 2013.… Read More
All great empires eventually fall. This is as true in retail as it is in geopolitics. In this story, originally published in Common Dreams, ILSR co-director Stacy Mitchell delves into the reality of Walmart’s retail overbuilding, and how our local economies have suffered due to that disastrous decision.… Read More
All great retail empires eventually fall. A&P did. So did Montgomery Ward. But Walmart’s recent announcement that it would close 269 stores may not be an initial stumble on a path toward demise so much as a move to abandon communities that it has decided simply aren’t worth the trouble. We look at both the bad and the good fallout from Walmart’s pullback, and how its closures are best explained as a side effect of its main strategy for dominating the economy: overbuilding regions to the point of not just destroying competition but cannibalizing its own sales, while communities bear the consequences.… Read More
A growing body of research is giving us new ways to quantify the harms of bigness and the benefits of local ownership. In this post, we round-up the important studies and provide the evidence that policymakers can use to craft better laws, business owners can use to rally support, and citizens can use to organize their communities.… Read More
No company moves as much stuff across the world’s oceans as Walmart does, and the climate consequences are immense. Ferrying all those cheap TVs, T-shirts, toasters, and toys from Asian factories to ports in the U.S. and elsewhere releases huge amounts of greenhouse pollutants into the atmosphere, including both carbon dioxide (CO2) and black carbon. We’ve compiled a few key data points on shipping’s climate impact and Walmart’s dominance in the movement of goods across the world’s oceans.… Read More
Having used its supercenters to capture one-quarter of U.S. grocery sales, Walmart is building a new wave of smaller stores that are poised to clean up the market share its supercenters don’t already control.… Read More
