Did you hear about our new packaging?
Last Friday, Wal-Mart Watch had the opportunity to attend a presentation on “Wal-Mart, China and Responsible Sourcing” at Johns Hopkins University. Beth Keck, the senior director of international sustainability and strategy for Wal-Mart, was there to represent Wal-Mart.
Keck’s presentation primarily focused on sustainable buildings, plastic bags, and packaging, but also mentioned Wal-Mart’s new supplier standards.
After Keck finished her 28 slide PowerPoint presentation, she fielded questions from the audience. A great majority of those present wondered if Wal-Mart’s “always low prices” mantra is inherently contradictory to sustainability. Keck replied that it is not and talked about packaging.
Regarding the new supplier standards, I pointed out to Ms. Keck the reaction Wal-Mart’s sustainability summit had received in the news and I asked her how Wal-Mart suppliers were to supposed to pick up the costs of improving standards when many of Wal-Mart suppliers are forced to supply Wal-Mart with little or no profit.
Keck talked about packaging…
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Posted by Research Team on Monday, November 17 | 5 comments | Permalink
Weekly Update for Elected Officials: Nov. 12, 2008
Check out this week’s issue of the Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials – a compilation of Wal-Mart news from across the country and beyond.
This week’s issue begins with a Bloomberg report of Wal-Mart being placed on a list of most controversial companies. Also named - the company responsible for producing melamine-tainted milk in China. The list includes companies criticized for producing negative impacts on communities, health, and the environment, and was based on a study by RepRisk, a consulting firm that analyzes companies’ exposure to controversial issues and news.
You’ll also find stories from BusinessWeek and the Financial Times on how corporate giants like Wal-Mart are gearing up to battle potential pro-labor legislation in 2009. With President-Elect Barack Obama and the Democrats taking over next year, retailers are bracing to fight the Employee Free Choice Act – or EFCA – which could make it easier to organize unions in the workplace.
In addition to EFCA, you’ll find stories on Wal-Mart and the economy. And from the legal front, read about a $19 million discrimination lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart and Pepsi in West Virginia. Plus, in the world of product safety, read more about questions raised by the controversial chemical BPA, as well how Wal-Mart has been selling lead-tainted face paint for kids…a no-no anytime, and especially around Halloween.
And finally, check out our “Stateside” and “Wal-Mart International” sections to find out what’s going on with Wal-Mart around the country and across the globe. Chicago city aldermen have a wish list for an Obama presidency; the fight continues over whether Wal-Mart can build near a Civil War battlefield in Virginia; and towns in California and Nevada deny Wal-Mart the ability to sell alcohol on its store shelves.
Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials [November 12, 2008]
Posted by Corey Himrod on Wednesday, November 12 | 31 comments | Permalink
Fight Continues: Wal-Mart vs. (Real) Carbon Reduction
Remember back in August when we wrote about Wal-Mart’s lobbying effort against carbon offset guidelines? It got picked up on a handful of blogs, and started a lively internet discussion about Wal-Mart, the “green” image the company so strongly lusts after, and the (real) global fight to reduce carbon output.
The discussion continues.
The Christian Science Monitor (who blogged about the carbon-offsets issue) today tells us how Wal-Mart is firmly opposed to any sort of required carbon footprint labeling. Here’s the spin Wal-Mart peddled to CSM:
“As for carbon-labeling, Wal-Mart’s senior vice president of sustainability, Matt Kistler, says that he doubted existing methodologies and the Wal-Mart customer’s ability to relate carbon with consumer merchandise.
“I’m not sure the consumer will ever make a purchase based on the carbon footprint,” he says, “especially the mass consumer.”
To respond:
1. How then is Wal-Mart planning to measure the carbon footprint of its suppliers at all? Remember that Wal-Mart just spent weeks puffing out its chest about how it was going to force foreign suppliers to decrease their footprints. And furthermore, Wal-Mart has shown that it’s willing to squeeze its foreign supplier every chance it gets, whether its over RFID technology, sustainability - or just good old fashioned price. Does anyone really believe that carbon footprint can’t be measured, and that Wal-Mart couldn’t or wouldn’t mandate carbon labeling if it felt it would help the bottom line?
2. Customers won’t be able to understand? How about this: a lower number is better than a higher number. I think we can all agree that EVERY SINGLE Wal-Mart shopper could understand what that means, whether or not they are concerned by it. To insinuate otherwise is insulting to the 70% + of Americans who shop at Wal-Mart. According to CSM, “In Britain, carbon footprinting – used initially to broadly measure environmental impact across a company’s entire operations – is morphing into an eco-labeling tool.” Maybe Mr. Kistler just thinks that the British are smarter than Americans?
Five years ago this story wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows. But Wal-Mart’s PR team just got headlines in virtually every major American news outlet for holding a “sustainability summit” in China and supposedly telling its Asian suppliers to get green and get ethical. There was no mention anywhere (that we saw) of mandated carbon labeling on products, so kudos to the Christian Science Monitor for pressing Wal-Mart a little on the issue. Now it’s up to us and other enviro blogs to ring the bell a little louder.
Why doesn’t Wal-Mart want to mandate carbon labeling? Maybe because showing the real footprint of each store’s 100,000+ imported products would take a major dent out of the company’s effort to look soft, friendly and green. Wal-Mart doesn’t want to show you the energy that goes into, and the carbon that comes out of, every dollar it makes - because it’s not pretty. And until the company proves otherwise, we can assume those numbers are headed up - not down.
The heart of the sustainability problem with Wal-Mart’s supply chain is simple: it’s on the other side of the world.
It’s not that Wal-Mart is the only retailer that sources from Asia - far from it. It’s not that steps can’t be taken to make its foreign suppliers more sustainable - they can and should (and hopefully will). It’s that Wal-Mart is determined to earn a “green” image, while at the same time keeping the exact same business model: huge superstores on the highway that stock cheap foreign imports that were shipped on a tanker across the pacific, and then in a truck across the country.
The bottom line: shipping a 19 cent tube sock from Shanghai to Syracuse will never, ever, be “green” - despite what pretty logos are on the package, and whatever ethical or environmental improvements the factory might make.
Are you ready to go on a carbon diet? [Christian Science Monitor]:
In Britain, carbon footprinting – used initially to broadly measure environmental impact across a company’s entire operations – is morphing into an eco-labeling tool.
Earlier this year, the British supermarket chain Tesco began labeling some of its 70,000 products to reflect the carbon released in the their production, transport, and consumption. The 3,729 store behemoth, the world’s fourth-largest retailer, now has 20 carbon-labeled items on its shelves, core items such as orange juice and laundry detergent.
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Posted by Eric Bull on Monday, November 10 | 4 comments | Permalink
You Scratch Our Back, We’ll Break Yours
Maybe Wal-Mart doesn’t understand how products are made.
In Wal-Mart’s world, suppliers make products for Wal-Mart because the pleasure of working with Wal-Mart is so great. In fact, the less profit a supplier makes from working with Wal-Mart, the greater pleasure! That must be why when Wal-Mart demanded suppliers improve their “sustainability” and “safety”, Wal-Mart said it will not pay for these increased costs. Rather, Wal-Mart said it would reward compliant factories with longer contracts of the same low-priced orders.
But in the real world - where people have responsibilities outside of their contracts with Wal-Mart (like feeding their families) - suppliers are ailing. Many report that Wal-Mart has failed to take into consideration reality - that costs of raw materials and manufacturing have increased substantially. Many suppliers are being forced to “either supply Wal-Mart goods while not raising prices and wait to die or raise the prices and court death.”
To make reality just a little more grim, Wal-Mart is now demanding that suppliers implement radio frequency identification (RFID) to replace bar codes. According to reports, implementing RFID will increase the cost burden on suppliers by 20 times the cost of the currently used bar code. While the suppliers are left to figure out how to pay for the increased cost, Wal-Mart is expected to save $8.35 BILLION each year.
As we’ve seen, coercing suppliers to produce at below cost forces suppliers to abuse labor and use inferior materials - thus creating Wal-Mart’s real need to increase sustainability and safety.
If Wal-Mart wants real, sustainable change, Wal-Mart needs to put the money behind it. Until then, we all lose.
Posted by Michael Mignano on Friday, November 07 | 2 comments | Permalink
Weekly Update for Elected Officials: Halloween Edition
Check out this week’s issue of the Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials – a compilation of Wal-Mart news from across the country and beyond.
This week’s issue begins on Wal-Mart and the economy, and whether Wal-Mart sales statistics can be used as a new barometer for the U.S. economy. You’ll also find stories on changes in shopper behavior, now that consumers are faced with less disposable income. And, you’ll find stories on Wal-Mart’s slowed growth, and the switch to smaller store formats by retailers across the country.
In addition to the economy, you’ll find stories related to next week’s election. Barack Obama highlighted the story of a 72-year-old man forced to go back to work for Wal-Mart in his half-hour special this past Wednesday night. Meanwhile, according to Reuters Wal-Mart vows to remain non-partisan in the 2008 election season, while the Financial Times reports on the candidates attempting to woo the so-called “Wal-Mart Moms.” Plus, there are suspicions that Wal-Mart is behind a new grassroots group recently set up to fight the Employee Free Choice Act, as reported in The National Journal.
Also: Find out whether a Wal-Mart case in Montana could lead to changes in that state’s campaign finance law.
And finally, check out our “Stateside” and “Wal-Mart International” sections to find out what’s going on with Wal-Mart around the country and across the globe. A California ballot measure could lead to increased demand for more humane animal products, while citizens in Virginia continue to fight Wal-Mart’s attempt to build near an historic Civil War battlefield.
Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials [October 31, 2008]
Posted by Corey Himrod on Friday, October 31 | 51 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart case could lead to changes in Montana campaign finance law
Allegations of campaign violations are rising in the Big Sky State, and a recently-released decision on a 2006 complaint might lead to changes in Montana’s campaign finance law.
Complaints of violations flowing in at the rate of about 30 per day to the state’s Commissioner or Political Practices, have of which are coming from Ravalli County in southwestern Montana. According to the Ravalli Republic:
The state’s most pressing investigation in Ravalli County concerns the Higher Ground Foundation, a nonprofit group that is urging voters to repeal the county’s growth policy in an effort to prevent zoning and streamside setback regulations from being adopted later.
The group formed as an “incidental committee,” which are defined as a group that makes political contributions but whose primary purpose isn’t to influence elections. But it has become clear to many that Higher Ground has a higher purpose than simply contributing funds, and is instead directly promoting the repeal of the county’s growth policy. Complainants are urging the state to force the group disclose the sources of its funding, and its expenditures.
So how does this tie into Wal-Mart? Well, just over a week ago, Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Dennis Unsworth released his opinion regarding a 2006 complaint against a group called Ravalli County Citizens for Free Enterprise. The group supported construction of a Wal-Mart Supercenter and the successful repeal of a zoning ordinance that blocked big-box stores. Unsworth ruled that RCCFE was nothing more than a Wal-Mart front-group that violated financial reporting and record-keeping laws. He said that Wal-Mart appeared to have bought a campaign in order to influence an election, and that the case could lead to Third party campaigning is growing in the state [The Missoulian]” title="changes in Montana’s campaign finance disclosure laws">changes in Montana’s campaign finance disclosure laws. It turned out that only $90 of the PAC’s money came from local residents, whereas $115,000 came from Wal-Mart.
“It’s absolutely critical,” Unsworth said, “that voters know who’s behind these groups, in order to make informed decisions.”
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Tuesday, October 28 | 13 comments | Permalink
Who Makes the Stuff You Buy?
The latest photo essay from independent photo journalist Wang Haofeng reveals the devastating reality for many Chinese workers. Wang’s images point to the need for reform in law, regulation, and the sourcing practices of large buyers like Wal-Mart.
Wang Haofeng Focus via chinaSMACK:
According to the essay, factory bosses use children “like robots, letting them rest only 6 hours per day,” and making them work late into the morning.
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Posted by Michael Mignano on Friday, October 24 | 9 comments | Permalink
Weekly Update for Elected Officials: Oct. 22, 2008
Check out this week’s issue of the Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials – a compilation of Wal-Mart news from across the country and beyond.
This week’s issue begins with news of Wal-Mart’s closing of a Quebec Tire and Lube Express, just two months after workers there won a precedent-setting collective bargaining agreement. The move has been wildly denounced, although Wal-Mart officials maintain that Wal-Mart is not anti-union. Following up on that, BloggingStocks.com asks whether it’s wise that the retailer would rather see an operation shut down entirely than have employees with any kind of power.
In addition, the Hartford Courant has been following an issue in Connecticut - it seems the CT Consumer Protection Department will review Wal-Mart’s double tax policy to see if it violates state tax law. And on the International side, read more about Wal-Mart’s new green store in Beijing, China, and how the retailer is claiming it will toughen standards on its Chinese suppliers.
And finally, check out our “Stateside” and “Wal-Mart International” sections to find out what’s going on with Wal-Mart around the country and across the globe.
Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials [October 22, 2008]
Posted by Corey Himrod on Thursday, October 23 | 1 comments | Permalink
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