[getsmart-l] Sustainability Initiatives?!?! - Assailing Planet Wal-Mart

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Assailing Planet Wal-Mart



23 Organizations Issue Damning Critique of Wal-Mart's Sustainability
Initiatives Human rights, labor and environmental groups find
Wal-Mart's "green" initiatives lack real impact on global warming, 
employee health and welfare.


WASHINGTON, DC - November 15 - As Wal-Mart releases its long-anticipated
sustainability progress report today, 23 environmental, farm, labor,
and human rights groups are disseminating their own report, "Wal-Mart's
Sustainability Initiative: A Civil Society Critique."


The report, prepared by some of the country's most respected public
interest groups, includes sections on Wal-Mart's specific commitments
in seven product areas -- organics, seafood, shrimp, forest products,
cypress mulch, product packaging, and toxic chemicals -- as well
as sections on global warming and Wal-Mart's international business
practices. It argues that even if Wal-Mart achieved all of its
stated goals, the company's business model is inherently unsustainable.


This damning critique comes nearly two years after Wal-Mart CEO H.
Lee Scott announced a bold initiative to turn the world's largest
company green.


However, as the report explains, "Wal-Mart's goal to cut its annual
greenhouse gases by five million tons would be admirable if it
weren't for the fact that the company publicly acknowledged in 2006
that its global operations created 220 million tons of greenhouse
gases every year. That's more than 40 times the emissions the company
says it would like to eliminate."


Moreover, according to the progress report Wal-Mart released today,
the company's global carbon emissions actually rose 8.6% in 2006,
indicating that the company is far off track in meetings its own
goals.


Wal-Mart has used its massive political clout to support an
anti-sustainability agenda in the U.S. Congress. According to report
contributor Corporate Ethics International, two-thirds of Wal-Mart's
PAC campaign contributions in the last election went to candidates
who earned failing grades from the League of Conservation Voters.
"Wal-Mart claims to be a leader in the battle against global warming,
yet it's one of the largest contributors to politicians with the
worst records on global warming," says Michael Marx, Corporate
Ethics International's Executive Director.


Ultimately, the report contends that the mega-retailer's "sustainability"


agenda ignores the health and welfare of employees, customers, the
environment and local economies both in the US and across the globe.
"Wal-Mart can change to more efficient light bulbs, but that doesn't
change its carbon footprint or the enormous social consequences of
its globally unsustainable business model.


If we look at its practices internationally, Wal-Mart has used its
market power to cut costs at the expense of workers and the environment
across the developing world," says report contributor Ruben Garcia
of Global Exchange.


"As the nation's largest grocer, Wal-Mart's impact on the Earth's
environment is profound," said Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia
Institute, one of the reports contributors. "There is no action we
take, as consumers, that has a more profound impact on the environment
than our choice of food, and Wal-Mart's dependence on imports and
unsustainable factory farming is highly destructive."


Wal-Mart is not only using an astronomically unsustainable amount
of fuel in importing cheap goods from China into the US and Mexico,
where it is a leading retailer, but it is also undermining local
economies by refusing to source from local producers who are being
cut out of the market.


"Wal-Mart officials claim to be concerned about sustainable
livelihoods, but in reality, the company continues to squeeze workers
and suppliers in a global 'race to the bottom' in wages, benefits
and working conditions," says Trina Tocco, coordinator of the Big
Box Collaborative, which produced the report.


Ultimately, the report asks: "Can a company claim to be "sustainable"
when it drives down wages, refuses wages to some 20,000 minors
working in its Mexican stores, pays unsustainably low prices to its
suppliers (leading to sweatshop conditions), drives local stores
and markets out of business, and disregards the wishes of the
communities where it establishes its stores?"


This report was coordinated by the Big Box Collaborative, and
includes contributions from ActionAid International USA, Agribusiness
Accountability Initiative, American Independent Business Alliance,
American Rights at Work, Center for Health, Environment and Justice,
Centro de Investigacisn Laboral y Asesoria Sindical (CILAS),The
Cornucopia Institute, Corporate Ethics International, Dogwood
Alliance, Environmental Investigation Agency, Food and Water Watch,
Friends of the Earth, Good Jobs First, Global Exchange, Gulf
Restoration Network, Institute for Policy Studies, International
Labor Rights Forum, Mangrove Action Project, STITCH, WakeUpWalMart.com,
Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now (WARN), and Washington State Jobs
with Justice.


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