The Verdant 360 Blog

Leave it to Walmart to up the ante. Today the world’s largest retailer released a statement that should catch everyone’s attention. They have announced plans to create a product sustainability index that will eventually (they believe) be included on all products that are sold in Walmart stores. According to Walmart the index will give consumers a single source of data for the evaluation and comparison of a product’s sustainability. It reinforces Walmart’s commitment to leadership in the area’s of both sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

According to Mike Duke, Walmart’s President and CEO:

Customers want products that are more efficient, that last longer and perform better. And increasingly they want information about the entire lifecycle of a product so they can feel good about buying it. They want to know that the materials in the product are safe, that it was made well and that it was produced in a responsible way.

We do not see this as a trend that will fade. Higher customer expectations are a permanent part of the future.

At Walmart, we’re working to make sustainability sustainable, so that it’s a priority in good times and in the tough times. An important part of that is developing the tools to help enable sustainable consumption.

The Walmart plan calls for a 3 phase approach to the development and implementation of the index. The first step is creation of a survey (sounds a little like the Verdant 360) that will ask questions around 4 areas.

1. Energy and Climate
2. Material Efficiency
3. Natural Resources
4. People and Community

Walmart will be asking it’s over 100,000 suppliers to respond to the survey. It is asking it’s U.S. base suppliers to respond by October of this year.

The second phase will be to create a consortium of universities to collaborate with suppliers, retailers, NGO’s and governments to create a global database of information of the cradle to grave impact of the products that are sold in Walmart stores. They intend to engage a software company create an open platform to power the index.

The Third and final phase will be to translate the data captured in phase two into a standard that informs consumers about the sustainability of products.

This is how the statement was reported in bloomberg.com today,

Wal-Mart’s unilateral decision to put its purchasing and communication power behind going green also shows that a single company using its unique clout can accelerate public action to reduce greenhouse gases and reverse climate change. By rolling out an environmental labeling program disclosing to consumers the environmental costs of making products sold at Wal-Mart, the $401 billion retail behemoth has transformed green standards from nice-to-have to must-have.

We will be discussing this for some time to come.

-Fred

Corporate Social Responsibility, Supply Chain, Sustainability Add new tag, Corporate Social Responsibility, supply chain sustainability, Walmart

This week I had the good fortune to sponsor an event held by the P3-The Partership in Print Production at the Time Life Building in New York. The event was The Triple Bottom Line-Sustainability: A New Business Imperative. The speaker Andrew W. Savitz, wrote the book The Triple Bottom Line in 2006. At the time sustainability was on few peoples radar. Now three short years later we have seen a climate change scenario that seems to be accelerating, oil price volatility that saw prices climb to over $140 dollars a barrel then plummet almost as precipitously, as well as an economic crisis of historic proportions. Although companies are rightfully focused on surviving the current economic crisis, it is now apparent  that sustainability is something that many are adopting as a core business principle.

Introduced in 1994, the term The Triple Bottom Line is generally credited to John Elkington. It measures business success by a new metric. A metric that takes into consideration three areas, economic, environmental and social. It is at the intersection of these three areas that an organization can recognize the benefits of the implementation of a truly successful sustainable business strategy. This is what Andy Savitz calls ‘the sweet spot” and it is the central thesis of his book.

The sweet spot embodies the literal meaning of “sustainability,” making your company viable for the long term by managing according to principles that will strengthen rather than undermine the company’s roots in the environment, the social fabric,and the economy.

In an entertaining, illuminating and at times provocative presentation, Andy challenged the audience (largely made up of print publishing members) to look at their businesses through the new lens of sustainability. Now, given the difficulties that many audience members have faced not just from the current gloomy economy but  also from a fundamentally changing business model, you might have  thought that the audience response would have been lukewarm. Instead the majority of the audience (IMHO) seemed to understand that The Triple Bottom Line is really about implementing sound business practices. Business practices that will bring benefits now as well as when the economy emerges from the current downturn.

-FR

Sustainability Add new tag, Andrew W. Savitz, Sustainability, The Triple Bottom Line

So I’m done with green.

I’ll let everyone who wants to use the term “green,” use it to their heart’s content. For me the word is “sustainability“, and the message is that sustainability is about efficient utilization of resources, developing a corporate social responsibility program that benefits our employees and our communities, reduces our negative environmental impact and increases shareholder value. Done…end of story.

No more “green” marketing, nor more “green” business practices, no more “green” laundry detergent, no more cute pictures of frogs, spouting “it’s not easy being green.”  Unfortunately the  term has become so ubiquitous and generic that we have devalued the message.

I would venture that anyone who goes to their direct report and says we need to institute a “green” program for procurement or says we need to create a “green” effort in our office, will get a response along the lines of, “I hear you , but we can’t afford to do that right now. We are focusing on cost containment and doing whatever we can to generate revenue.” “Green” (IMHO) completely obscures the message that sustainability can potentially reduce costs, generate revenue and increase brand value. Moving forward I am selling sustainability and committed to it.

So to all you of you marketing folks out there (you know I do love you) who want to label everything  “green” go for it.  Just don’t give me “green” ketchup or “green” orange juice because then you’d be confusing me as well… but you can give me “green” beer on St. Patrick’s Day.

(This was a bit of a rant.)

-FR

Sustainability Add new tag, Sustainability