Scorecard or Sore Card?

Of course it will become the Standard. It's from one of the largest purchasers of bulk items in the world.

Knowing just how much they worry about destroying business sectors and job prospects surrounding their stores, I'm sure its a publicity ploy. Producers will do what they say or else they can't play. Sorry for the little rant but I've watched them suck the life out of 2 areas.

If I have not been misinformed, Wal-Mart is the world's 7th largest economic unit, behind only NATIONAL economic units like the United States and the European Union. What does that say about standards? ISO, look out, there's an 800-pound gorilla in the house... But IF done properly, it could be a tool for innovation, it all will be determined by how it is used.

it could be a tool for innovation, it all will be determined by how it is used.

It could but it won't, it will be used to generate profit!

Probably, but I'm willing to let them demonstrate they are money-grubbers. There's always the off chance they'll see that an improved public image would do 'em more good than the extra couple of million they could extort from the packaging folks. In truth, I worked at the corporate HQ in Arkansas for about 6 months last year (all I could stand under the circumstances, plus got a better offer), and their recycling efforts ARE for real.

Say whatever you want, the sustainability issue is alive and well within the CPG industries. Wal-Mart may have been the first "biggie" to do it but many others are now on board doing their own thing. It is not wrong to do. The issue is that there is so little agreement and definitions are sometimes very loosely used. It is like deciding what your carbon footprint might be to fly commercially from NY to LA. Apparently there are various formula on the Internet that, with the same input numbers of mileage etc., give you an answer from 1,000 to 7,000 pound range. Not much help. So, keep your ear to the ground on sustainability and you will continue to hear much more.

Going green is probably the most controversial and at the same time, the most difficult to understand, issue that "normal" folk have had to deal with in recent years.

When large companies start expressing their tendencies by following a certain gospel, how are we supposed to be able to tell what is what if these large companies are at odds with each other?

Virgin has just flown it's first, and the world's first, flight with a biofuel airplane. Look at the different explanations and you will find wildly diverging stories ranging from "best company in the world" to " most demonic deluded idiots in the world" depending on what you read.

With the scientists so opposed in bipolar camps, why would I want to give a company with a track record like Wal-mart any benefit of the doubt? It is all spin at this moment in time.