Wal-Mart: Reducing Waste to Reduce Cost

Lee Scott Jr., the CEO of Wal-Mart, turned some heads at the ECO:nomics conference in California last week when he bluntly stated “we are not green.”

Environmentalism has been rising in popularity over the past few years - gaining followers not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because of the savings involved.

The savings, it seems, is what has prodded Wal-Mart to jump on board.

Scott has been in the spotlight recently because of his highly publicized promises to green up Wal-Mart stores across the globe [video]. As the company continues to grow, however, their carbon emissions are also going up - begging the question, “what next?”

“I haven’t a clue,” said Scott when asked when the billion dollar store would meet it’s target of having zero waste and 100% renewable energy. However, the environmental goals still seem to be a major focus for Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is looking for ways to work with their suppliers in limiting the amount of waste across the board - transportation costs, packaging, cardboard, and so on - so they can not only be more environmental, but also reduce their costs on the whole.

As the U.S. economy slumps, Wal-Marts customers continue to expect quality products at affordable prices. If they want to keep their customer base happy, they’ll have to continuously look for ways to cut costs while maintaining the value.

Environmentalism, it seems, is the perfect answer to Wal-Marts problems. “When is a better time?”, Scott said, regarding the waste reduction program.

How about you? Are you looking for ways to lower your costs without affecting your quality of life?

[via Wall Street Journal]
[further reading: TreeHugger]