Bursting Wal-Mart’s bubble

Life in the “Bentonville Bubble” used to be simple. Every operation had to be streamlined, every market expanded and every last cent rung out of the Wal-Mart machine. In late 2005, that all changed. Greening the world’s largest retailer, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, is akin to Oxfam becoming a profit-making company. It’s a staggering shift – and one this paper appraises with welcome balance.

With some 60,000 suppliers worldwide, the retailer realised that its primary environmental footprint lay in its supply chain. After extensive interviews with Wal-Mart representatives and the firm’s partners, the authors focus in on three of the 14 supplier engagement groups set up by the retailer. Their analysis of these so-called “sustainable value networks” – multi-sectoral groups covering the company’s seafood, textiles, and electronics supply chains – highlights the advantages and possible shortcomings of Wal-Mart’s approach.

Upcoming Ethical Corporation conferences & events:
How to manage Social & Environmental Risk in the mining, oil & gas, steel and other heavy industries
London, 22-23 March 2010 The Responsible Business Summit 2010
Novotel West Hotel, London, 4th – 5th May 2010 The Inaugural Ethical Corporation Awards
Novotel West Hotel, London, Evening of 4th May 2010
The Awards will be held at the Responsible Summit -
on the evening of the first day
Please login to view whole article - or subscribe here.
For a free two week trial to Ethical Corporation online, please click here.