Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Aug 26, 2010
Seventh Generation is the U.S.’s leading eco-friendly household products brand. Based in Burlington, Vermont, Seventh Generation has made a commitment to both green living and green business for the past twenty years. From making products without toxic chemicals to educating consumers about how their individual choices make a difference, Seventh Generation works hard to live up to its environmental mission each day.
Walmart has shifted its direction to be much more aware of its environmental impact. For the past five years, Walmart has focused their energies on reducing waste and energy consumption and on carrying more sustainable products. Walmart now insists on certain environmental ethics and standards from all of its suppliers. It seems like a natural transition that as Walmart tries to become more environmentally friendly and to offer more ecologically sound products to its consumers that it would want to carry one of the best eco brands.
For a long time, Seventh Generation avoided any association with the largest retailer in the world. But when Walmart began to incorporate sustainable business practices into their mission, Seventh Generation co-founder Jeffrey Hollender saw a way to make his products accessible to a wider audience and to potentially make a big difference in educating people about living in greater harmony with our planet.
Walmart has asked Seventh Generation, the Environmental Defense Fund, and others to help in their mission to become a model of green business practices. They are starting to screen the products they sell in order to avoid stocking items that contain harmful chemicals. They plan to gradually introduce Seventh Generation’s green household products to their stores, with a full offering available through Walmart.com this fall.
Phot via joshspoon
Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Jul 08, 2010
In today’s economy, many of us are looking for ways to save money or get a better deal, both at home and in our businesses. Unfortunately, the cheapest choices are not always the best options for our planet. Doing business cheaply can neglect steep environmental costs. Fortunately, this is also a time when consumers are looking for both sustainability and value. Customers are more satisfied with green businesses. For many people, it is worth spending a little extra money to help protect the planet.
For this reason, it is important for sustainable businesses to manage their operations with the planet in mind each step of the way. This means more than just reducing, reusing, and recycling. Companies also need to consider where their physical resources are coming from. Wal-Mart operations are a good example of the need to consider the sources of both products and raw materials. Wal-Mart’s big sustainability push has made Wal-Mart consider the sources of their low-cost products to hold up under the scrutiny of environmentally conscious consumers. Wal-Mart now insists on high standards in labor and environmental practices in the factories they do business with. Chemical dumping and using rainforest wood are not acceptable, for example.
Another question green companies should ask themselves is where their services are coming from. Sustainable businesses should look for services such as green real estate companies, green printing presses, green catering, green IT, and green banking / investing firms whenever possible. Green utilities are even more important. Traditional electricity sources may be relatively cheap, but they have a much higher environmental cost. Purchasing green energy is a choice to purchase a premium product that is better for the environment and helps expand a green customer base.
Some even choose to take the search for green utilities even further by producing their own green power. The University of New Hampshire, for example, is now largely powered by a system that utilizes waste methane from a nearby landfill. This technology is now well enough established that many businesses and organizations could easily tap into this energy source considered to be renewable by the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership, provided they are located near a landfill.
With a little creative thinking, businesses and organizations can extend the sustainability of their operations to encompass both products and services from their source.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Apr 08, 2010
For many businesses, April 22's Earth Day has expanded into Earth Month. Companies such as Whole Foods Market, Walmart, and Aveda have come up with projects and products to inspire customers with environmentally friendly ideas all month long.
Walmart, for example, has displays in every U.S. store that feature packages of candy right next to products made from candy wrappers, such as notebooks, purses, and even kites. These innovative recycled products come from a company called Terracycle, which pays consumers to send their trash. Terracycle takes consumer waste such as Skittles wrappers, Capri Sun drink pouches, and Lays potato chip bags and creates fashionable backpacks, tote bags, pencil cases, gift wrap, and much more. These products can be purchased at Walmart and many other retail stores.
Walmart has already impressed consumers with its new push for environmentally sound business practices such as its new Sustainability Index, which looks more closely at the impact of the products they sell. Their Earth Month partnership with Terracycle is another step in the right direction.
Whole Foods Market, which is even more well known for its sustainable business practices, features green trivia games, a special April calendar with daily activities to make a difference, and special Earth Month offers. Consumers and businesses look to Whole Foods Market as an example of what a green company looks like on a daily basis. Whole Foods Market was a pioneer in offsetting their energy use with green power, purchasing Renewable Energy Credits from wind farms. In addition to battling climate change, Whole Foods Market encourages consumer use of reusable bags, purchase of organic and sustainable products, and more.
Such companies as Whole Foods Market and Walmart are showing leadership in the changing world of green business, as more and more people realize the importance of focusing on sustainability not just on Earth Day, but every day.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Fri, Apr 02, 2010
As
Walmart makes strides towards sustainable business practices in the US, Walmart UK (known as Asda) is also making an effort to implement positive environmental policies. Asda is already subject to more stringent environmental standards since it is based in the UK rather than in the US, but they are working to go above and beyond industry standards.
One of Asda's goals is to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels by 20% before the year 2012. Asda's Head of Corporate Policy for Sustainability & Ethics, Justin Walker-Palin, is proud that Asda was able to reduce carbon usage by 7% from 2007 to 2009. For a few years now, Asda has been calculating their carbon footprint and making that information public as a way to keep themselves accountable and make their environmental efforts transparent.
New Asda stores will use less energy by incorporating sunlight and more natural ventilation systems that don't rely on energy-intensive air conditioning. Eventually, Asda aims to use exclusively renewable energy to power their stores. To this end, they are starting the process of building wind turbines and experimenting with different power options at some of their stores. Asda is also striving to eliminate landfill waste by increasing their reusing and recycling.
In addition to creating sustainable business practices for the corporation, Asda is providing eco-friendly products for the environmentally aware consumer as well. Asda offers store brand organics, store brand fair trade products, and store brand pesticide-free products at reasonable prices. Asda is not associated as strongly with the green movement as some other British chains, but that is changing as sustainability comes to the forefront of Asda's policies.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Mon, Mar 29, 2010
Using green power is one of the most important ways that we can positively impact our environment and alleviate the effects of climate change. A great way to reduce your carbon footprint (your individual impact on the planet as measured by your usage of fossil fuels) is to opt for green power. What is green power? It is basically electricity that is generated from clean, renewable sources, such as wind, solar or geothermal. Homes and businesses can either install their own green electricity sources, such as solar panels, or they can purchase Renewable Energy Credits.
Purchasing Renewable Energy Credits is a very easy way to counteract some or all of your fossil fuel usage from electricity consumption, at home or at work. The concept is simple. A company such as EcoElectrons will inject green electricity on behalf of businesses and/or consumers into the power grid through partnerships it has with companies that own wind farms and solar farms. Companies like EcoElectrons help people reduce their environmental impact by allowing them to offset their energy use through Renewable Energy Credits. Each Renewable Energy Credit purchased is the equivalent of reducing (or offsetting) conventional electricity usage by one megawatt-hour.
Companies can improve their sustainability as well as their attractiveness to an environmentally conscious consumer base by opting for green power. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a Green Power Partnership program for businesses and organizations to encourage the use of clean electricity. Some of the companies that participate in this EPA program include Intel, Kohl's, Great River Organic Milling, Whole Foods Market, Johnson & Johnson, Codero, Walmart, and Office Depot. Some companies only use green power for a small percentage of their annual electricity usage while other companies choose to offset 100% of their electricity.
It has never been easier for individuals and companies to go green with the ready availability of such green power and related carbon offset programs. Carbon offsets and green power (or Renewable Energy Credits) is slightly different. See our FAQ for more info. Of course, all providers of green power and carbon offsets are different. So be sure to research your choices to find the company that invests most effectively in a healthy planet.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Sun, Mar 21, 2010
Walmart recently announced its intentions to reduce its carbon footprint over the next five years by tightening standards for its suppliers.
The largest retailer in the United States said that by 2015, it plans to reduce 20 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions produced during the life cycle of the products they sell around the globe.
"Essentially, suppliers are being asked to examine the carbon lifecycle of their products, from the raw materials used in manufacturing all the way through to the recycling phase," reported the New York Times.
When Walmart suppliers find areas where they can improve energy efficiency, such as in production or packaging, they are the ones responsible for implementing the changes. Critics say that businesses already hit hard by the recession may struggle to pay costs incurred by Walmart’s requirements, while the corporation will reap the benefits without making sacrifices of its own.
The Walmart Sustainability Index, announced last July, aims to chart and reduce the environmental impact of products from their creation to disposal, and to inform customers of how green their products are.Because Walmart is a corporate behemoth, with 1.4 million employees worldwide and over $408 billion in FY2010 sales, it wields a powerful influence over its suppliers. It sells products from cosmetics to home furnishings.
Over the past few years, Walmart has made efforts to improve its green business practices, including the following:
- measuring the green attitudes and practices of its customers
- using more renewable energy sources
- offering local food and sustainable seafood
- experimenting with eliminating plastic bags and installing solar panels
- making a commitment to sustainable sourcing of wood and paper
Some say that the mega-retailer's green initiatives may be more motivated by profit and image management than by altruism. While that may be true, others agree with the sustainability site Treehugger's assessment that "it's getting harder and harder to hate Walmart."
Posted by Rahul Chitrapu on Wed, Feb 10, 2010
Walmart Canada is hosting a summit on sustainability, highlighting the very real business case for going green. Over 350 delegates are gathering today at the Pan Pacific in downtown Vancouver, to collaborate across industry sectors, and accelerate the implementation of profitable, environmentally sustainable business practices. Some of these delegates include 3M Canada, HP Canada, Canadian Tire and Coca-Cola Canada.
Walmart
Canada also announced the launch of
ShareGreen.ca, a website to share sustainable business practices across the Canadian business community. The virtual site will give organizations of all sizes access to the successful green business practices of many of Canada's top corporations and organizations. Walmart
Canada views the launch as the first step in building a virtual centre of excellence for sustainable business practices.