Corporate Social Responsibility Press Release
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11.25.2008 - 11:59pm ET
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The Latest Corporate Social Responsibility News - Wal-Mart Celebrates Thanksgiving by Sourcing Local Food, Supporting Hunger-Relief, and Buying Wind Power
(CSRwire) Last week's sudden news of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott handing the reins over in
February 2009 to Mike Duke, the company's head of international operations,
raised
questions on how the new leader will steer the discounter's sustainability
initiatives, which have met praise and skepticism. Duke has
gone on record saying that "Wal-Mart and our supplier partners must
operate in a more socially and environmentally responsible way wherever we
do business ... we at Wal-Mart are also committed to being a leader on
sustainability." Using its vast size to influence entire supply chains to
its advantage - the very practice that skeptics criticize as "bullying" -
Wal-Mart is now leveraging this muscle to shift markets toward greener
practices.
Seizing on the spirit of Thanksgiving, for example, Wal-Mart highlights
its increasing local produce
sourcing - its buyers use "Food
Mile Calculators" to cut down on carbon emissions while also
supporting the communities in which the company operates. Wal-Mart
customers can buy local pumpkins in more than half the US states, local
apples in more than a third, and local sweet potatoes in a seventh.
Skeptics such as Grist
Columnist Tom Philpott point out that Wal-Mart's definition of "local" may
include entire states: "That definition might shine in smallish states
like, say, Vermont. In large states like Texas and California, it begins
to lose luster." That said, Philpott welcomes Wal-Mart's influence if it
leads to a regional food distribution system that supports mid-sized
farms, instead of continuing to industrialize the food chain.
In this holiday of food abundance, Wal-Mart is also using its
size to support America’s hungry. The company is donating some 90
million pounds of food annually - about 70 million meals - to the largest
hunger-relief charity, Feeding America, by the end of 2009. On top of
this, the Wal-Mart Foundation is donating $2.5 million to help Feeding
America buy 20 new refrigerated trucks for transporting food to the
agency's food pantries and soup kitchens, which are experiencing between
15 and 50 percent rises in demand for food.
Perhaps most significantly, Wal-Mart is continuing its
march toward the goal of being powered completely with renewable
energy by sourcing up to 15 percent of electricity needs in its 360 stores
in Texas with wind power. The estimated 226 million kilowatt-hours of
renewable power produced will keep over 139,000 metric tons of global
warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere each year - the equivalent of
taking about 25,000 cars off the road. It also creates green jobs for
supplier Duke Energy to build its new wind farm in Notrees, Texas. And
here again, Wal-Mart's action creates cascading impacts by boosting the
clean energy market and setting an example for other companies to
follow in committing to renewables.
Wal-Mart's biggest challenge is to reconcile its continuing growth with
its sustainability intentions. Its overall direct emissions of carbon
dioxide equivalent (which factors other greenhouse gas emissions in
addition to CO2) rose more than 100,000 metric tonnes from 2006 to 2007,
according to its Carbon
Disclosure Project response. Wal-Mart is working very hard to deliver
on Lee
Scott's assertion last year in the company's 2007 Sustainability
Progress report of "being a more sustainable business." What
remains to be seen is if Wal-Mart can remove the "more," to become a truly
sustainable company.
This article was written by CSRwire contributor Bill Baue. Disclosure:
Baue wrote Wal-Mart's Sustainability Progress report in 2007.
CSRwire's Multimedia Picks of the Week
Calling all Gen Y-ers and Baby Boomers: Check out this provocative
trailer for Jobs for Rent, a documentary film that chronicles Generation Y
and their endless pursuit for a career in today's attention-deficient
society. Contrast that with the Baby Boomer's attitude toward their
careers. Are they worlds apart, or do they just have a different
definition of "career"
All thoughtful attempts at bipartisanship aside, when Democrat Mark Begich
beat out Republican Ted Stevens in the Alaskan senate race, we just had to
post this victory interview! Steven's was recently convicted of lying on
Senate disclosure forms in order to conceal home renovations and other
corporate bribes from oil-field engineering firm VECO Corp. In this video
Begich discusses his future energy and environmental plans.
CSRwire's
newest commentary features Andrew Winston, a blogger for Harvard Business
and co-author of the best-seller Green to Gold. Winston writes about
going green in hard times, and feels confident that the economic recession
won't stem the tide of the Green Wave.
A report this
week from Business for Social Responsibility focuses on issues of
International Labor Migration. Labor migrants now represent roughly
190 million people, or about 3 percent of the world population. BSR is
increasing the visibility of migrant workers: how they are recruited, the
terms of their employment, the rights they are afforded in the countries
where they work, and offering steps companies can take to protect them.
Another report, this one from Greener Buildings, attempts to answer
whether commercial green buildings live up to their name. This Green
Building Impact Report is the first-ever integrated assessment of the
land, water, energy, material and indoor environmental impacts of the
LEED for New Construction (LEED NC), Core & Shell (LEED CS) and Existing
Building Operations and Maintenance (LEED EBOM) standards.
To read the latest corporate social responsibility news from leading
socially responsible organizations, visit http://www.csrwire.com/LastAlert.html.
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