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Report criticizes retailer's methods
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
September 6, 2007
By Steve Painter
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ’s lowcost, low-price business model leads to environmental damage, sweatshop conditions at suppliers’ factories and loss of jobs in communities, a coalition of labor, environment and community groups says in a report scheduled for release today.
The Big Box Collaborative, an umbrella organization encompassing two dozen groups, singles out the world’s largest retailer for business practices it says result in more harm than good.
“They’re the biggest so obviously they have the most impact,” Trina Tocco, the group’s coordinator, said in a telephone interview.
“If Wal-Mart is serious about being sustainable, they need to be serious about what sustainability really is,” said Tocco, who works for the Washington-based International Labor Rights Forum.
“Sustainability” has been a buzzword at Bentonvillebased Wal-Mart since 2005, when company President and Chief Executive Officer H. Lee Scott outlined plans to reduce packaging and energy use in its operations and to promote such environmentally friendly products as compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Dave Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the company is seriously striving to achieve its environmental goals and is working with suppliers to con- serve resources.
“Judge us by our actions. We feel like we’re making progress. We’re just beginning to scratch the surface of what we’re capable of,” he said.
Wal-Mart has no intention of changing its low-cost business model, Tovar said.
“We know it’s tough right now and Americans are looking for us to provide the best value,” he said.
Among the groups in the 2-year-old Big Box Collaborative are environmental groups Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club; Cornucopia Institute, which promotes small-scale organic farming; the businesssubsidy watch group Good Jobs First; and organized labor-focused groups American Rights at Work and WakeUpWalMart. com.
On its Web site, Big Box Collaborative says that “while Wal-Mart is the initial primary focus of this campaign, members of the collaborative also include organizations that focus on Target, Costco, Home Depot and Tesco.” All of those companies are large retailers. Tesco PLC is the United Kingdom’s largest retailer and is preparing to enter the U. S. market. Among the report’s other points: The company’s supply chain creates more than 40 times the emissions the firm says it is aiming to eliminate Wal-Mart relies on a shrimp industry-financed group to verify that its suppliers are using the best aquaculture practices. The company sells cypress mulch, which is leading to destruction of some Gulf cypress forests that provide protection against storm surge. Wal-Mart uses its clout with overseas factories to force price concessions and thus brings about worse working conditions for people already working long hours for low pay.
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