Wal-Mart and China’s Pollution Problems

As Beijing prepares for the opening ceremonies of the Olympic summer games later this week, more and more attention is being drawn to China’s pollution problems. The country is notorious for smog-filled air and chemically tainted waterways. While cleaning crews struggle to clear up algae-strangled rivers, many athletes are planning to compete with face masks because the air quality is so poor.

China recently became the world’s largest CO2 producer, producing one quarter of the world’s carbon emissions. A post on Treehugger today points out that 33% of those emissions are from export manufacturing.

Wal-Mart is an integral part of this problem. As we mentioned in yesterday’s post on China’s human rights violations, Wal-Mart isn’t the cause of China’s pollution problems, but it certainly has a vested interested in keeping China’s environmental standards low. Were China to improve environmental regulation, manufacturers looking to source as cheaply as Wal-Mart demands would inevitably be forced to other countries and China would loose billions.

The Olympics are only highlighting a problem that has been going on for decades: companies like Wal-Mart force countries like China to sacrifice environmental integrity for production profits. It’s a critical aspect of corporate social responsibility that Wal-Mart glibly passes-over in its sustainability reports, but China’s carbon production is everyone’s affair. As the Olympics have revealed, China’s people are suffering from these practices and shouldn’t be made to bear the world’s burden.

It’s Not You, It’s Me: 33% of China’s CO2 Emissions From Export Manufacturing [TreeHugger]
33% of China’s carbon footprint blamed on exports [New Scientist]
Global CO2 emissions: increase continued in 2007 [Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency]

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, August 05, 2008

COMMENTS

Speaking of the Olympics, Greg Penner,newly installed member of WalMrt Board of Directors and Rob Walton’s son-in-law,is on the Board of Baidu,a Chinese internet search engine.~~~~~~~~: Baidu Signs Cooperative Agreement with China Netcom
BEIJING, April 8, 2008 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/—Baidu.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDU), the leading Chinese language Internet search engine, today announced the signing of an agreement with China Netcom Group.

According to the agreement, Baidu’s leading Internet search service will be leveraged to help CNC Internet users find information they need online more efficiently by powering a jointly designed search page that users will be redirected to after they attempt to visit an incorrect or nonexistent URL.

“We are determined to become the leading provider of broadband communications and multimedia services in China,” said Yiming Fang, CNC’s general manager of media business. “ The synergy between Baidu and CNC will be enormously valuable for all of our customers.”

“As one of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games sponsors, CNC commands an extensive customer base and shares core values with Baidu, such as a commitment to providing user-oriented services. These commonalities served as the foundation of our partnership,” added Haoyu Shen, Baidu’s vice president of business operations. Baidu is increasingly lending expertise in search and product design and development of business models to partners. We find these types of partnerships mutually beneficial.”

“CNC is the leading national telecom operator with dominant market share in northern China,” Shen continued, we are confident that this agreement will strengthen Baidu’s position as the search engine partner of choice for telecom operators seeking to improve services for customers.

China Network Communications Group Corporation (China Netcom) is a leading broadband communications and fixed-line telecommunications operator in China. The Company aims to pursue innovation and growth with a goal to be a “broadband communications and multimedia services provider”.

About Baidu

Baidu.com, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. As a technology-based media company, Baidu aims to provide the best way for people to find information. In addition to serving individual Internet search users, Baidu provides an effective platform for businesses to reach potential customers. Baidu’s ADSs, each of which represents one Class A ordinary share, are currently trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol ‘’BIDU’’~~~~~~~~~

ddrb in
Thursday, August 07 at 12:27 AM

Commenting is not available in this content entry.