World's biggest employer says going green brings more greenbacks

As I was talking to my dad yesterday, I began thinking back to an article he had given me to read last fall about Wal-Mart, the world's biggest employer, making an effort to go green. I decided to look it up again because I still think about it often and remember being impressed by the often-demonized company's commitment to an effort to reduce greenhouse gases and use renewable energy. The company has committed to making a difference, and a great deal of its employees are enthusiastically on board as well.

What is the real beauty of this strategy to encourange sustainability? The company has over 60,000 suppliers. If Wal-Mart can convince its suppliers to reduce waste, use more recycled products, and/or reduce impact to the environment, the total impact would be enormous. The company being so large and powerful all over the world, it can also threaten those companies that do not comply with increasingly stringent standards, requiring that they change their wasteful practices or lose the giant's business.

A few examples of what the company is planning to do:


• Slash gasoline use by its trucking fleet, one of the largest in the USA, and use more hybrid trucks to increase efficiency by 25% over the next three years and double it within 10 years. That will save $310 million a year by 2015, the company says.

• Buy 100% of its wild-caught salmon and frozen fish for the North American market only from fisheries that are certified as "sustainable" by the non-profit Marine Stewardship Council within three to five years. That designation means areas of the ocean aren't fished in ways that destroy fish populations.

• Cut energy use at its more than 7,000 stores worldwide by 30% and cut greenhouse-gas emissions at existing stores by 20% in seven years. Wal-Mart is the largest private electricity user in the USA.

• Reduce solid waste from U.S. stores by 25% within three years.

The company also plans to make seemingly minor alterations in its store by putting lights on censors, so areas of the store where no one is shopping will be unlit. But the company's motivations aren't entirely angelic. Strategists realize that not only can the company save a lot of money but doing adopting such practices, it can also attract environmentally conscious customers while making them more environmentally aware. Wal-Mart is even "actively supporting the idea of a system for companies to "trade" carbon dioxide credits. Wal-Mart believes it can earn lots of credits by saving energy, and it can sell them for millions of dollars to companies that can't." Company executives claim this will show in product prices.

The moral of the story: Going green can be good for the environment and the bank, both. Companies are now engaged in what's become almost a competition to come up with the most innovative and cost-effective ways to make a difference and stay financially strong. The excitement continues...