Walmart’s Going Green: Should We Care?

It’s been happening for a while.

First, Walmart started offering a large selection of organic products in their grocery sections. Then the company saw the economic benefit of cutting its growing fuel costs by sourcing local produce; last July the company jumped on the locavore bandwagon. Now the monster retailer has initiated an “Earth Friendly” department in their retail stores, it has a “Green Living” section on its retail website, and it touts a whole host of corporate eco-friendly efforts from alternative fuels to sustainable buildings.

Can it be true? Is the green and sustainable community’s favorite retail whipping boy really turning over a new green leaf? Is it even possible for a world domination, small-business-killing, massive-retail-space-footprint business model to be considered sustainable? Or, maybe a better question is this: Can Walmart help you go green?

By supporting the behemoth, do you betray the small independent merchants who’ve been providing your green goods. Is Walmart just jumping on one more bandwagon to make a buck? Or is this – gasp – legit?

Here’s my take: Bully for Walmart. If the world’s number one retailer thinks it’s a good idea to go green, then sustainability may finally be gaining traction. Finally, a major retailer is getting the message that reducing your carbon footprint actually saves money. And a Walmart ally in the fight to go green can only serve to spread the message and make going green easier for more people.

Could Walmart even help the mom & pop health food stores? Possibly. A significant barrier to “going local” has been the lack of regional supply chain infrastructures sufficient to feed people – a problem that Walmart has itself contributed to. In a December 2009 story for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Georgina Guston posed the interesting question: “Could Walmart, with its famously efficient logistics and economic heft, actually play a role in building that infrastructure,” or convert its existing infrastructure to the task?

The big W wants to think so, and the company has started to mobilize its army of trucks in the effort. Walmart’s definition of local isn’t as local as the locavores (same state-ish vs. 50 miles), but it’s heck of a lot better than shipping from across the country. And where Walmart goes, other retailers follow.

So what should you and I do? How about this: If you already buy your green goods from your local independent shop, keep doing so. But if you’re new to green goods, or if you don’t have a co-op or farmer’s market in your neighborhood, shop WalMart. If nobody buys their green products, they’ll go away.

Ultimately, we want WalMart to be successful in their sustainability venture. As long as they’re not screwing their suppliers by arm-twisting them into unsustainably low margins, and as long as they really start to walk their green talk, more power to them. It’s one more step in the right direction.

Check out Walmart’s Green Living section and tell us what you think.