Wal-Mart, Sustainability & Cameron Diaz?

Sustainability Conference - Graphics from newyorktimes.com

Four years ago, I was living in Hong Kong, when my Dad was in Beijing at the Global kick-off Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Conference with its suppliers, Wal-Mart executives and Cameron Diaz, in the polluted capital of China.   It made for a strange mental montage. It was cover page news in the Wall Street Journal and many other publications and newswires the world’s largest retailer really serious about sustainability leadership is it PR fluff? I mean, how does Cameron Diaz fit in? Fast forward to October 22, 2012 - it would seem that Wal-Mart was very serious about their realization that sustainability matters to everyone and it pays to begin to lead.  They created The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) of which now 90 multinationals have joined over the past 36 months and it is having significant influence in the world as it creates global sourcing standards regarding environmental and social compliance, transparency and accountability.

It would seem that Wal-Mart decided to get out in front of a what was becoming a potential serious liability in terms of sourcing issues out of difficult to manage & geographically remote places like China. Evidently, 90 other members of the independent organization that Wal-Mart founded think so too.  Ralph Gardner Jr.’s article Serious 'Sustainability' in the recent October 3^rd WSJ cites the President of the Rain Forest Alliance, Tensie Whelan……“The reason that multinationals are jumping aboard, she said, isn't because they’re do gooders, but that they see the writing on the wall. “Big companies are seeing the risk to their supply chains,” from factors such as deforestation, drought and civil unrest, she said. The practices the Rainforest Alliance promotes, and that the frog signifies, “becomes core to their business.”.   

It is easy to be cynical but this what we want our biggest companies to do – take action.  I suppose the motivation can be suspect but through action it becomes real and moves thousands of suppliers in the right direction.  The big companies have influence and through better practices make a difference.  And as Ms. Whelan points out – it becomes core to the way they behave.

So what do you think? Are big retailers like Wal-Mart trying to make themselves look good  (Cameron Diaz) or really trying to make a difference because it is the right thing to do?

The article was written by Ralph Gardner a journalist for the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. It was published on October 3rd 2012.