Wal-Mart’s “green rating” plans

Wal-mart has announced plans to give a green rating to all of its products. Wal-Mart states it will ask all 100,000 of its suppliers to provide detailed information about their water use, air pollution, packaging and any other factors that affect their carbon footprint and, by working with environmental groups and academics, the company will put the details into an indexing system. Customers will be able to see a universal rating system, which is said to be easily understandable.  The initiative has been announced in New York by Wal-Mart's president and chief executive, Michael Duke, at a "sustainability meeting" with 1,500 staff and suppliers.

According to Mr. Duke, the company has to change how products are made and sold and consumption itself has to be made smarter and sustainable. Wal-Mart has been announcing plans to cut energy consumption at its stores, to reduce waste, and to promote renewable energy such as compact fluorescent bulbs. Wal-Mart said shoppers will, however, have to wait for the green ratings on products for several years, since they will take a long time to develop, The Telegraph reports. Critics mention that Wal-Mart’s initiative may just be a way of improving its public image, and some sceptics point out that some eco-labelling attempts had problems before making information comprehensible to shoppers.

The Telegraph