It’s Not Easy Being Green: The Truth Behind Wal-Mart’s Environmental Makeover

Wal-Mart and the Environment: Big Business, Bigger Negative Impact
The average Wal-Mart supercenter is a 200,000+ square foot behemoth sitting on 20 to 30 acres of land. There are over 2,200 supercenters in the United States, in addition to standard Wal-Marts, Neighborhood Markets, Sam’s Clubs, distribution centers and warehouses that blanket the United States. Wal-Mart is the largest commercial entity in the United States, both physically and economically, and its stores require massive amounts of land, energy and labor to function. It is widely understood that Wal-Mart is the largest “private” purchaser of electricity in the world.2 Wal-Mart’s business model relies on market saturation and low costs, but the negative effects of that strategy, especially on the environment, are becoming more apparent. Stores are built in outlying areas, away from municipal centers. Often, there are several supercenters within five miles of each other, and most Wal-Marts have an accompanying store within ten miles.

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