Wal-Mart: Paragon of Sustainability or Permanently Greedy

Wal-mart wants to do well by the environment, but is still neglecting its employees

Wal-Mart’s sustainability efforts get a lot of play these days.  For example, I just read about a talk given by Candace Taylor, the retail giant’s  director of corporate strategy and sustainability,  at the recent Global Social Venture Competition. She discussed the company’s program to measure how successfully it’s achieving such goals as creating zero waste and “selling products that sustain our resources.”

Also, in another blog on Greenbiz.com about traceability — the move to allow customers to trace the origins of products through the supply chain — there was something about Wal-Mart’s “Love, Earth” line of gold jewelry. Consumers can visit a web site and track a piece of jewelry back to the manufacturer, refinery, and goldmine; serial numbers etched on the bullion allow them to do this. Wal-Mart says it wants 10% of the gold, silver and diamond trinkets it buys to be traceable and, eventually, to source all of its jewelry in that way.

Sure, these steps are very promising and, also, thanks to Wal-Mart’s prominence, provide an important model for other companies to follow.

But there’s a ‘but.’

How amazingly hypocritical is it of Wal-Mart to push itself as the poster child of corporate sustainability and then treat its workers like crap? Wages are low. Many employees don’t have health insurance. Until recently, it locked some employees in at night. And the company is a relentless union-buster. To name one example, in 2005, Wal-Mart closed a garage in Gatineau, Canada, and a store in Jonquiere, after they were unionized.

It’s possible Wal-Mart may have to change its tune, if newly ramped up unionizing activities gain traction. Since February, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union has been running a new organizing campaign targeting Wal-Mart–apparently, with President Obama’s blessing. According to a story on the Wall Street Journal web site:

Since February, about 60 UFCW organizers have been dispatched to more than 100 Wal-Mart stores in 15 states to get workers to sign union-authorization cards. The cards are attached to flyers that feature a photograph of President Barack Obama and a quote from a 2007 speech he gave to UFCW activists in Chicago. “I don’t mind standing up for workers and letting Wal-Mart know they need to pay a decent wage and let folks organize,” Mr. Obama said in 2007. A White House spokesman said Thursday that the president stands by the statement.

Corporate sustainability/responsibility means taking steps to protect the environment and treat employees well. You can’t have one without the other. Unless your goal is to be a sustainable hypocrite.