Wal-Mart’s Green Efforts: Only Skin Deep?

An article from the Northwest Arkansas Morning News takes a closer look at Wal-Mart’s greening efforts, and while the piece stops short of calling the company’s initiatives “greenwashing” per se, it says most of Wal-Mart’s suppliers aren’t really sure what this whole sustainability concept is all about. Most of them are scrambling to stay on the company’s good side, but comprehensive sustainability efforts can take months or years to implement. And while Wal-Mart has been quick to certify some suppliers as “green,” the notation doesn’t have much basis in reality. So you decide: how genuine are Wal-Mart’s sustainability efforts?

Suppliers warned against greenwashing [NW Arkansas Morning News]

Consumers are seeing many products in stores with claims of being green. Compact this, concentrated that. This is green, that is ecofriendly.

Yes, caring about the environment is more popular than ever. Consumers want environmentally friendly products, and businesses want to give it to them.

Everyone wins, right? Not so fast.

The rush to capitalize on a growing interest in going green has presented real problems to suppliers and consumers. From defining what green means to what’s meaningful to consumers, a simple idea can get pretty complex.

And these days, there’s a lot of pressure on suppliers to go back to the drawing board with reduced packaging, innovative new products, elimination of wasteful materials and reductions in energy use at every step along the way.

In some cases, it may just seem easier to slap a product with a big green label and call it a day.
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Leo J. Shapiro & Associates did some research on the connection between green, the consumer and the company, and found that manufacturers, retailers and others hoping to leap onto the green bandwagon with superficial sustainability claims should caution against “greenwashing.”

The firm and others shared with suppliers the many misguided and failed attempts to appeal to the earth-conscious consumer, such as greenwashing, at a sustainability conference hosted by Retailing Today at the John Q. Hammons Center on Wednesday.

“The stakes are very high,” said Art Angel, research director with Leo J. Shapiro & Associates. “If you find yourself tagged as greenwashing, your business is going to be tainted.”

Angel said the firm’s research suggests that insincere attempts to go green could not only jeopardize a brand, but hurt other brands and spark consumer backlash. He warned against just dabbling in green products.

“It’s not part of your niche brand offering, it should be part of your corporate DNA,” Angel said.

The sustainability initiatives Wal-Mart Stores Inc. launched two years ago have suppliers scrambling to go green when just a few years ago, few knew what sustainability meant, much less how to apply it to their business practices. But a new direction for Wal-Mart means suppliers are along for the ride to help the Bentonville-based retailer meet its goals, which includes reducing packaging through the supply chain by 5 percent in five years.

Those doing business with Wal-Mart hear a lot about sustainability from their client, but some suppliers still struggle with how to apply it.

Kerry Bailey, director of retail at Menasha Packaging Corp./Retail Integration Institute, told suppliers that going green is more than a product with recycled or recyclable packaging or installing a few solar panels at the office.

“Green is a Zen practice. It has to encompass everything you do,” Bailey said.

Wal-Mart is making sure of it, and it’s giving suppliers added incentive to get on board with its sustainability initiatives. The retailer said it will reward innovative companies with favorable product placement, based largely on a scorecard system that began Feb. 1.

The sustainability scorecard evaluates products based on nine metrics including package-to-product ratio, recycled content and transportation requirements.

“The packaging scorecard says one thing - make an improvement,” Bailey said.

And consumers want to see that improvement in a way that is sincere and meaningful. Instead, they are seeing products appear on the shelves that aren’t, such as self-certified green labels and standards, and unchecked claims, said Joann Hines, a packaging consultant and columnist known as the “packaging diva.”

“Your solution may not satisfy your customer,” Hines said. “I’m not saying self-certification is bad, I just want you to realize that consumers may not understand or care.”

Some solutions work with consumers, and some don’t.

According to Leo J. Shapiro & Associates, 49 percent of consumers surveyed said they had purchased an energy-efficient light bulb in the last year, 62 percent said they’d purchased a product designed to conserve energy or protect the environment, and 16 percent said they purchased an energy-efficient household appliance.

Despite the priority consumers have placed on environmentalism through their product purchases, the same enthusiasm doesn’t translate into behavioral changes.

The majority of consumers - 81 percent - say manufacturers aren’t doing enough to conserve energy and protect the environment, according to the firm. But the same group of consumers surveyed, about 800 Chicago-area participants, said they don’t want to disrupt their daily lives to go green, either.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, February 27, 2008

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