Wal-Mart Leads Retail Shift toward Sustainability Brand

If you deal with Wal-Mart in almost any way, you probably already know that the company has changed its brand from “Everyday Low Prices” to “Save Money, Live Better.” Can you imagine how much it must have cost the company to re-brand in order to include some sustainability projects in its brand? I’m sure it’s a big number. But Wal-Mart basically bet the farm on sustainability, health and wellness, community, economic opportunity and value as its five key initiatives.

Health and wellness kicked off with $4 prescriptions. In conjunction with its huge sustainability initiative, Wal-Mart recently held a conference in which it brought together CEOs from all over the country and announced that it was going to green its supply chain. That means if your company is a Wal-Mart vendor, or if you want to be one, first you must meet the company’s sustainability objectives.

That’s huge because Wal-Mart interacts with 80 percent of the households in the U.S. Anything Wal-Mart does affects most consumer brands and most manufacturers. For example, Wal-Mart now sells a reusable shopping bag for $1 that is made from 85 percent recyclable materials, carries the same weight as a plastic bag and replaces 50 plastic bags in its lifetime.

Six months ago Wal-Mart launched the “Live Better Index” to track its efforts.
The index charts the habits of American households in five major areas, including sustainability. At the six-month mark for the index, Wal-Mart reported that Americans had already purchased 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs for a $1.5 billion savings on their electricity bills.

Why is this so important? Because Wal-Mart has already found that sustainability is not only cost effective, but it saves consumers money. And now they have decided that they are also going to save themselves and their supply chain money by extending their sustainability initiatives rather than drawing back from them.

The example of Wal-Mart is why I believe the enterprise will lead the way to solutions that go significantly beyond the nuts and bolts of GRC and into the important territory of innovation.

Add comment November 8th, 2007