The following statement is attributable to Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com:
"We strongly support Vice President Al Gore in his national effort to bring the issue of environmental sustainability to the top of the American people's agenda and in his effort to make all companies, including Wal-Mart, more environmentally responsible.
While we are glad Wal-Mart is talking about environmental sustainability, Wal-Mart’s long record of inaction and empty rhetoric leaves us deeply skeptical about Wal-Mart’s true intentions. Unfortunately, as the American people have seen again and again, Wal-Mart has a consistent pattern of saying one thing and doing another. We can only hope that Wal-Mart's latest talk of becoming a more environmentally-friendly company is not just another public relations smoke screen in the company’s desperate attempt to salvage its public image.
As one of our nation's most distinguished leaders, we have no doubt Vice President Gore will use this opportunity to call on Wal-Mart to change and become a more responsible company in all areas of its business. We hope Vice President Gore will join with us in our national campaign effort to make Wal-Mart not just an environmentally-friendly, but an employee-friendly company as well.
In its current form, Wal-Mart's business model is unsustainable for America. By depressing wages, shipping U.S. jobs overseas, not providing affordable health care, violating child labor laws and being sued for discriminating against 1.6 million female employees, Wal-Mart’s record stands in direct contrast to the best of American values.
As we have said before, if Wal-Mart is truly sincere about changing for the better, Wal-Mart should accept our sincere offer to sit down with us, work together in positive way, and help create a new business model for the betterment of its employees, their families, and all of America."
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Wal-Mart and Environmental Sustainability
Some of Wal-Mart’s Most Widely Publicized Sustainability Policies Are Actually Changes Made In Response to the EPA Citing the Company for Environmental Violations
For example:
• Wal-Mart’s press releases on its sustainability initiatives tout how the company will reduce idling on its trucking fleet to improve fuel efficiency. [http://www.walmartfacts.com]
But, Wal-Mart forgot to point out:
• In 2004, EPA inspectors caught the company letting its trucks idle for hours at a time, a violation of state and national laws. [Boston Globe, November 2, 2005]
• In November 2005, the EPA reported, “As part of a settlement for clean air violations, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will undertake a national effort to reduce diesel truck idling at its 4,000 facilities across the U.S.” [EPA Office of Public Affairs, November 1, 2005]
And Wal-Mart’s Business Model Counteracts Environmental Sustainability Because:
1) Wal-Mart Stores Increase Vehicular Traffic and, With It, Fuel Use and Air Pollution
• Researchers have looked at Wal-Mart as having the following impact on traffic and fossil fuel use: the size of Wal-Mart stores makes the company locate on the outskirts of towns and its entry causes smaller competitors in pedestrian-friendly areas to close. Shoppers wind up driving more often and/or farther and in more traffic. [Supercenters and the Transformation of the Bay Area Grocery Industry: Issues, Trends, and Impacts. Bay Area Economic Forum, 2004]
• A study of estimated additional driving costs of Supercenters in the San Francisco Bay area concluded that Wal-Mart’s entry into the area would lead to an additional 238 million vehicle miles traveled per year. [Supercenters and the Transformation of the Bay Area Grocery Industry: Issues, Trends, and Impacts. Bay Area Economic Forum, 2004]
• These extra miles traveled could cost communities in the Bay area up $ 256 million in additional costs such as infrastructure repair and environmental degradation. [Supercenters and the Transformation of the Bay Area Grocery Industry: Issues, Trends, and Impacts. Bay Area Economic Forum, 2004]
2.) Wal-Mart Pushes Up Imports, Harming The Environment
• In 1995, Wal-Mart imported 6 percent of its total merchandise. In 2004, Wal-Mart imported 60 percent of its total merchandise. [Frontline 11/16/2004]
• Co-Op America concluded in 2006 that “Wal-Mart’s pursuit of cheap labor around the globe has exponentially increased the amount of fossil fuels needed to get the product onto a Wal-Mart shelf.” [“There Is No Place For Today’s Wal-Mart in a Sustainable Society,” Co-op America Quarterly, Spring 2006]
• Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance said in 2005 that the company's environmental initiatives "miss the bigger picture. What is truly sustainable is local sourcing. Of course we will always have trade, but sourcing locally cuts down dramatically on fuel and energy use." [Grist Magazine. November 30, 2005]
• Economists have found that it is not the case that other retailers would be as likely to import these goods: Wal-Mart’s huge size lets it spread out the costs of long-distance trade, such as fuel, over many more goods sold than what smaller competitors would be able to do. [Emek Basker and Pham Hoang Van, “Putting a Smiley Face on the Dragon: Wal-Mart as Catalyst to U.S.-China Trade,” Paper presented at the American Economics Association Conference 1/8/06]
3.) The Quality Of Wal-Mart's Products Harms The Environment
• Heather Rogers, author of Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage, is skeptical of Wal-Mart’s newfound environmentalism. "It is a distraction, because the real environmental impact comes from what Wal-Mart sells: cheap commodities that are designed to wear out quickly," she says. [Grist Magazine. November 30, 2005]
• Indeed, Bureau of Labor Statistics economist Patrick Jackman, who has extensively studied Wal-Mart, argues that the disposability of what Wal-Mart sells has a "double impact" on the environment: more raw materials must be extracted to replace the defunct products, while at the same time the discarded items are sent to polluting landfills. [Grist Magazine. November 30, 2005]
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart Has A Horrible Track Record Of Environmental Fines
• Between 2003 and 2005, state and federal environmental agencies fined Wal-Mart $5 million.
• In 2005, Wal-Mart reached a $1.15 million settlement with the State of Connecticut for allowing improperly stored pesticides and other chemicals to pollute streams. This was the largest such settlement in state history. [Hartford Courant, 8/16/05]
• In May 2004, Wal-Mart agreed to pay the largest settlement for storm water violations in EPA history. The United States sued Wal-Mart for violating the Clean Water Act in 9 states, calling for penalties of over $3.1 million and changes to Wal-Mart’s building practices. [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, May 12, 2004, U.S. v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 2004 WL 2370700]
• In 2004, Wal-Mart was fined $765,000 for violating Florida’s petroleum storage tank laws at its automobile service centers. Wal-Mart failed to register its fuel tanks, failed to install devices that prevent overflow, did not perform monthly monitoring, lacked current technologies, and blocked state inspectors. [Associated Press, 11/18/04]
• In Georgia, Wal-Mart was fined about $150,000 in 2004 for water contamination. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2/10/05]
And Wal-Mart Is Charged With Violating Laws For Its Handling Of Hazardous Waste
In Wal-Mart’s Annual Report for 2006, the company disclosed that it faces multiple investigations for failing to follow environmental rules and regulations on hazardous waste.
• “The District Attorney for Solano County, California, has alleged that the Company’s store in Vacaville, California, failed to comply with certain California statutes regulating hazardous waste and hazardous materials handling practices. Specifically, the County is alleging that the Company improperly disposed of a limited amount of damaged or returned product containing dry granular fertilizer and pesticides on or about April 3, 2002. The parties are currently negotiating toward a resolution of this matter.” [Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., SEC Filing, Form 10-K, for fiscal year 2006]
• “The District Attorney for Orange County, California, has alleged that the Company’s store in Foothill Ranch, California, failed to comply with certain California statutes regulating hazardous waste and hazardous materials handling practices. Specifically, the County is alleging that the Company improperly disposed of a limited amount of damaged product containing dry granular pesticide on or about January 24, 2005. The parties are currently negotiating toward a resolution of this matter.” [Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., SEC Filing, Form 10-K, for fiscal year 2006]
• “On November 8, 2005, the Company received a grand jury subpoena from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, seeking documents and information relating to the Company’s receipt, transportation, handling, identification, recycling, treatment, storage and disposal of certain merchandise that constitutes hazardous materials or hazardous waste. The Company has been informed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California that it is a target of a criminal investigation into potential violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”), the Clean Water Act, and the Hazardous Materials Transportation Statute. [Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., SEC Filing, Form 10-K, for fiscal year 2006]
• The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California has initiated its own investigation regarding the Company’s handling of hazardous materials and hazardous waste and the Company has received administrative document requests from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control requesting documents and information with respect to two of the Company’s distribution facilities. [Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., SEC Filing, Form 10-K, for fiscal year 2006]
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