ULTRAKILLBOT

It’s no secret that Wal-Mart has adopted a new identity for itself and rebranded as the supposedly more sustainable Walmart. The more recent Walmart logo does indeed send a friendlier message than the all caps obviously corporate blue and white Wal-Mart incarnation. I was initially quite skeptical of such an adamant rebranding effort; regardless of logos and whatever identity they endeavoured to promote, I was convinced that on the inside Walmart would remain very much the same.

Thankfully, this seems as though it’s not going to be the case. Walmart has recently announced its plans to develop what they call a Sustainable Product Index – check out their website for all of the juicy details as well as a video capture of the entire meeting in which the idea was presented. Walmart also outlines its ultimate goals to be supplied 100% by renewable energy and to ultimately create zero waste. It seems as though the company is not pussyfooting around the issue and has instead chosen to hop on the environmental train full-force.

Reading about Walmart introducing a sustainability index reminds me of a scene from the film Food, Inc in which executives from Walmart make a visit to an organic farm in a bid to get their products onto Walmart shelves. The farmers happily inform the executives that they’ve never even set foot inside one of their stores, and it seems that this is the behaviour that Walmart seeks to rectify.

Sure, the positive changes in Walmart’s stores are entirely profit-driven – the reason they have introduced organic and vegetarian-friendly items into their retail locations is to appease a larger segment of the market. Even Shopper’s Drug Mart has an organic/veggie section now, and I think these are important steps for large corporations to take when one considers the risk involved. These changes should not be ignored and pushed aside because ‘big corporations are evil’ or any similarly dogmatic ideology. Just because Walmart hopped on the bandwagon a bit late (all things considered, quite early for a big business) does not mean they are deservant of the consumer’s scorn.

Walmart’s actions may not appear to be genuine when one considers the claims made in The Corporation as well as The High Cost of Low Price, but does it really matter if Walmart’s new behaviour is motivated by money or humanitarianism? Regardless of Walmart’s reasoning, the sustainability index they propose is going to be the first of its kind. Since Walmart is a global entity the system could shift perceptions of consumption and implement an emphasis on sustainability worldwide. It is a brilliant business move from one of the few companies in the world who actually has the ability to make a significant impact on the global marketplace.

They are going to receive accolades for being the pioneers of this Index, since Walmart is allowing the system they develop to be used absolutely anywhere without restriction. They are setting a revolutionary precedent. In his book Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the Planet, perhaps Gary Hirshberg articulated the state of things most effectively: “In one of those ironic twists that make life so interesting, the same boundless thirst for profit that got the planet into trouble can also get us out of it.”