By Sand Pfaff, GreenPepper
With all of the positive news about Wal-Mart and their greening strategy, I was ready to be “wowed” when I went to their Sacramento store on a recent Friday night. Instead, I was aghast. My experience from start to finish was about the furthest thing from green, and I left with the not-so-pleasant feeling that I’d been severely green-washed. From the filthy dirty parking lot and bathrooms, to the disengaged and surly employees, to the layout of the store, it was a depressing experience at best.
What about all that great work they’re doing to renovate facilities to be more energy efficient? I heard Charles Zimmerman, Wal-Mart’s VP of Prototype and New Store Format, speak at Opportunity Green in Los Angeles in November 2008, and was blown away by his plans for building new stores and renovating old ones. But they’re not connecting those dots to consumers like me who want to see evidence of that progress within the store.
What about the news of their personal sustainability program and how they’re really engaging employees in the green movement? While I didn’t expect to be greeted with a Whole Foods-like farmers market at the front door, I would expect some indication of how they’re contributing to the health of the environment, their communities and their employees. For starters, some signage would certainly help - at the registers, on the shopping carts, or even a lapel pin for cashiers that shares their sustainability goal. Based on what I saw, a personal sustainability program was the furthest thing from the minds of these employees, if they’d even heard about it.
While you may think the average Wal-Mart shopper may not care about this green progress, there are plenty of us who do, and we need to hold Wal-Mart accountable. If we’re to believe anything we read about them these days, we need to see them practicing what they’re preaching in the stores, and in their parking lots.
The only good news? I did get the light bulbs I came in for.
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