Wal-Mart Releases Long-Delayed Sustainability Report

Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director David Nassar today released the following statement in response to Wal-Mart’s 2007-2008 Sustainability Progress Report:

“We are pleased that after a lot of resistance, Wal-Mart finally understands that it needs to respond to its critics, but Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott and his leadership team are still missing the point.  While the report provides more of the same public relations efforts that we’ve seen in the past, the lack of substantive change shows the company is either unwilling or unable to make the meaningful changes to its core business model required to improve its business. 

“Contrary to Lee Scott’s comments, the company’s current business model is not sustainable.  The company’s stock price is flat, sales growth is anemic and the company continues to think public relations campaigns can solve its problems.  Just this week, we released a public opinion poll that shows Wal-Mart’s current and potential customers are concerned about Wal-Mart’s business practices and it is affecting their willingness to shop there. Specifically, 28% of all consumers (and 23% of regular Wal-Mart shoppers) report developing a more negative opinion of the company over the past year and regular Wal-Mart shoppers are more likely to say they have bought/shopped less at Wal-Mart because of what they’ve heard about the company’s business and labor practices.

“This company currently faces the largest gender discrimination in the country’s history, provides health insurance to less than half of its employees, faces more than 80 wage and hour violation lawsuits across the country, ignores serious labor violations in overseas factories and environmental degradation and violations that can not be negated by selling fluorescent light bulbs and reducing detergent size.

“Consumers aren’t buying the Global Insight study and the company’s advertising campaign either. Consumers overwhelmingly reject the notion that shopping at Wal-Mart saves the average family who shops there enough money to provide any benefits resembling the ads’ claims. Only four percent of survey respondents believe Wal-Mart’s annual savings claims.

We’re pleased to see some improvements in the company’s behavior, but we can and should expect more from the world’s largest, most innovative company.”

Click here to download the full report from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Click here to read more about our work to improve Wal-Mart’s environmental track record.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, November 15, 2007

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