Grist | Topics | 21 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 21 of 21
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Give 'Em a Hand Wal-Mart will slice use of plastic bags		25 Sep 2008	News
Posted at 12:10 PM on 25 Sep 2008 Wal-Mart aims to cut plastic-bag waste in its global operations by an average 33 percent over the next five years, the retail behemoth announced Thursday at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. And if you ever doubted that Wal-Mart is big, consider this: The move is expected to eliminate some 9 billion plastic bags each year, equating to more than 135 million pounds of trash by 2013. Wal-Mar ...
Topics: business, green living, greening biz operations, greenish companies, news, progress, shopping, Wal-Mart, waste (all these topics)

Don't Shoot the Messenger New HP laptop packaged in messenger bag instead of box		03 Sep 2008	News
Posted at 12:03 PM on 03 Sep 2008 Don't take Grandma to Wal-Mart: the big-box store's new Hewlett-Packard laptop "will be displayed on shelves wearing only the HP Protect Messenger Bag." Scandalous! But actually, there's no need to avert your eyes: the HP Pavilion dv6929 is served up in a recycled, reusable messenger bag instead of a box, cutting cardboard and plastic packaging by 97 percent. Thinking outs ...
Topics: business, green living, green products, greening biz operations, greenish companies, innovation, news, shopping, tech, Wal-Mart, waste (all these topics)

Just Beyond the Parking Lot Wal-Mart gobbles up local produce		02 Jul 2008	News
Posted at 11:55 AM on 02 Jul 2008 You thought you took home a haul at the farmers market last week, but you've got nothin' on Wal-Mart. The big-box retailer has become the nation's largest buyer of local produce, planning to purchase and sell $400 million worth of locally grown fruits and veggies this year. Wal-Mart says it works with "hundreds" of individual farmers, and has 50 percent more partnerships with local growers t ...
Topics: business, food, greening biz operations, greenish companies, local food, news, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Turn Down the AC, Turn Up the AC/DC Wal-Mart truck fleet on track to meet fuel-efficiency goals		13 Jun 2008	News
Posted at 4:06 PM on 13 Jun 2008 Wal-Mart has improved the fuel efficiency of its 7,000-truck fleet by 20 percent since Oct. 2005 and is on track to meet its goal of a 25 percent improvement by the end of 2008, a Wal-Mart executive said Friday. Having already downsized its diesel tanks and started rolling on more efficient tires, the company also hopes to introduce hybrids into its fleet and perhaps ...
Topics: business, fuel efficiency, greening biz operations, music, news, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

The Company He Keeps An interview with eco-certification expert Michael Conroy	Katharine Wroth	07 Mar 2008	Grist Feature
Michael Conroy. Photo: Chris Conroy Photography As a shopper, you can't turn around without running into some type of green label, from Fair Trade to FSC-certified. But what do they all mean, and where the hell did they even come from? Economist Michael Conroy digs into the history behind these increasingly common labels in his book Branded!: How the 'Certification Revolution' Is Transfo ...
Topics: books, business, consumerism, green products, greening biz operations, interview, shopping, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Wal-Mart wants your cleantech ideas	David Roberts	27 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Wal-Mart wants your help: We are trying something new at Wal-Martamidst the crazy fast, rapidly growing space of clean/green technologies we have found it pretty difficult to do two things: 1. Find the technologies that we should be implementing and 2. Be sure those that we know about are the best options with the most business potential and positive environmental impact. With this in mind, we've decided to partner with Cleantech, a very large networ ...
Topics: business, greening biz operations, tech, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

But three of its stores have skylights. How bad could it be? Don't let Wal-Mart's greenish diversions distract you	Guest author	05 Feb 2008	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Alex Goldschmidt, online editor at Wal-Mart Watch.----- Photo: Lone Primate Wal-Mart has been trying its hardest to distract its environmental critics. In a carefully orchestrated act of diversion, the company shows off its skylights and light bulb sales. In doing so, Wal-Mart has managed to draw attention away from the other, deeper environmental problems lying at the heart of the company's business model. Wal-Mart's ...
Topics: business, greening biz operations, greenish companies, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Scott Glee Wal-Mart CEO outlines lofty green goals		24 Jan 2008	News
Posted at 1:44 PM on 24 Jan 2008 Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott made a big ol' speech yesterday spelling out ambitious social, health, and environmental goals for the retail behemoth. Wal-Mart will work with other retailers to boost industry-wide green standards, said Scott, and, within five years, Wal-Mart suppliers will be required to meet stringent environmental standards -- and may even be paid more to do so. The company wants to double its sales o ...
Topics: business, greening biz operations, greenish companies, news, progress, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Great Scott Wal-Mart CEO lays out ambitious social and environmental goals for his company	David Roberts	24 Jan 2008	Gristmill
Yesterday, Wal-Mart CEO gave a fairly amazing speech, assessing the company's progress on its social and environmental goals and laying out some extremely ambitious plans for the future. A taste: He then laid out sweeping plans for the company on several health and environmental issues, and he hinted that even more ambitious goals might be on the horizon. Mr. Scott said, for instance, that Wal-Mart is talking to leaders of the automobile industry about selling el ...
Topics: Wal-Mart, greening biz operations, business, energy, renewable energy (all these topics)

Wherefore Art Thou, Romeoville? Wal-Mart will open more-efficient stores		16 Jan 2008	News
Posted at 4:38 PM on 16 Jan 2008 Wal-Mart -- ah, always Wal-Mart -- has plans to open four stores that "will operate at a level that's 25 percent more efficient than a traditional Wal-Mart supercenter," according to a representative. The chain, which has a goal of someday having all of its 2,400 U.S. stores reach that level of efficiency, is using tricks it learned from experimental stores in Texas and Colorado. ...
Topics: business, green building, greening biz operations, greenish companies, news, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Sears of Joy Sears and KMart will phase out PVC, Wal-Mart accused of eco-naughtiness		13 Dec 2007	News
Posted at 1:36 PM on 13 Dec 2007 Big-box behemoths Sears and Kmart have agreed to phase out nasty plastic PVC from all products in their 3,800 stores. While admirable, the announcement merely makes those stores the lemmings of PVC abandonment; IKEA, Wal-Mart, and Target have all previously agreed to go PVC-free. In other big-box news, the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency has accused Wal-Mart of sour ...
Topics: business, green living, greening biz operations, greenish companies, logging, news, shopping, toxics, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

We'll Drink Beer for the Cause Wal-Mart will track some suppliers' energy efficiency		24 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 5:36 PM on 24 Sep 2007 Unrelenting in its quest for eco-domination, Wal-Mart has announced a plan to keep tabs on some suppliers' energy efficiency. Through a partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project, Wal-Mart will request emissions data from about 30 companies that collectively supply DVDs, toothpaste, soap, milk, beer, vacuum cleaners, and soft drinks. (Sure they're all commonly used, but -- r ...
Topics: business, greening biz operations, greenish companies, news, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

15 Green Corporate Leaders		30 Jul 2007	Main Dish
Corporations have been blamed for all manner of environmental evils -- and, in many cases, for good reason. But a growing number of powerful CEOs are seeing the green light. The corporate leaders highlighted here don't run wholly sustainable companies, by any means (many, like Wal-Mart and Pepsi, still have big problems to tackle), but they're making serious attempts to green their products and operations, and the effects of their efforts are rippling thr ...
Topics: business, greening biz operations, greenish companies, lists, Prius, Richard Branson, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Kohl's beats Wal-Mart Clean-up on aisle ... earth	Adam Browning	08 May 2007	Gristmill
Maybe not on price, but on solar.Wal-Mart just announced about 10 MW of solar on 22 stores. Nice. Kohl's, a grocery chain department store, is doing 30 MW. Nicer. These are significant contracts, and the companies signing them deserve kudos for putting their money where their mouths are.
Topics: business, green living, greening biz operations, greenish companies, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Brit's Eye View: British supermarkets are going green But why?	Peter Madden	25 Jan 2007	Gristmill
Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe. British supermarkets are now competing to go green. Two big retailers have just launched initiatives to tackle climate change. Marks & Spencer, which sells food and clothing to Britain's middle classes, promised this month to cut waste, sell fair-trade products, and make the company carbon neutral within five years. Environme ...
Topics: business, food, greening biz operations, United Kingdom, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

McKibben on 'green' Wal-Mart Wal-Mart may sell organic, but it also thrives on ruined downtowns and long freight hauls.	Tom Philpott	21 Nov 2006	Gristmill
I've always been a bit appalled by the polite applause with which some enviros greet Wal-Mart's 'green' initiatives. Seems to me that the only way the company could really 'go green' would be to stop selling cheap plastic crap shipped in from halfway around the world in vast suburban megastores. In other words, completely change it's business model -- not, say, adopt 'green' building techniques for its appalling superstores, or haul mass-produced 'organic' food from Cal ...
Topics: Bill McKibben, business, food, greening biz operations, greenish companies, organic food, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Wal-Mart's green makeover	David Roberts	08 Aug 2006	Gristmill
I have an op-ed on TomPaine.com today about Wal-Mart's recent green initiatives. Give it a read. I'm sure the accusations of corporate whoredom will come rolling in at any moment. I worry that, even given the copious pixels expended, my overall point was not entirely clear. So below the fold, I shall try to express it in more compact form. The basic dilemma Wal-Mart's greening poses is this: they're doing good environmental things -- real things, substantive thin ...
Topics: business, greening biz operations, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Wal-Mart's devious profit motive	David Roberts	07 Aug 2006	Gristmill
I'm in the midst of writing an op-ed about Wal-Mart's green transformation. One theme that comes up frequently in the commentary is this: Wal-Mart is "only" doing these things because they'll improve the bottom line. Um ... yeah. It's a business. It's supposed to make money. As a publicly held corporation, it's required by law to make money. If it went around doing things that deliberately reduced its profits, it would be subject to a shareholder lawsui ...
Topics: business, greening biz operations, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Learning to love Wal-Mart	David Roberts	27 Jul 2006	Gristmill
We've done some good stuff on Wal-Mart's greening, but Marc Gunther's cover story in Fortune this week pulls it all together better than any single story I've seen, and advances it in some interesting ways. Particularly in reference to our ongoing debate over morality, listen to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott: To me, there can't be anything good about putting all these chemicals in the air. There can't be anything good about the smog you see in cities. There can't be a ...
Topics: business, greening biz operations, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Al goes to Wal-Mart	David Roberts	07 Jul 2006	Gristmill
Several blogs have noted this item about Al Gore addressing the upcoming quarterly meeting on sustainability at Wal-Mart. Apparently Rich Cizik, Adam Werbach, and some other eco-luminaries will be there as well, and some fairly significant stuff is going to be announced. Our very own Amanda Griscom Little will be reporting from the scene. In the meantime, read her interview with Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott, and to wash that corporate taste right out of your pristine ...
Topics: business, greening biz operations, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Don't Discount Him An interview with Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott	Amanda Griscom Little	12 Apr 2006	Main Dish
Last week, Wal-Mart joined leading energy executives in their startling call for mandatory caps on greenhouse-gas emissions. The heart of this monolithic retail Grinch grew three sizes that day -- or so it seemed to many environmental Who's. Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott. For many enviros, the name "Wal-Mart" has always triggered a shudder. The world's biggest retailer has been charged with exa ...
Topics: business, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, greening biz operations, interview, renewable energy, Wal-Mart, waste (all these topics)

Stories About: business AND greening biz operations AND Wal-Mart