Wal-Mart has become a leader in sustainability by implementing numerous green practices that also save money. Some key lessons from Wal-Mart's journey include starting with quick wins like efficient lightbulbs, getting sustainability buy-in from the top-down, and embracing critics by inviting them to provide expertise on green strategies. Wal-Mart's size allows it to influence consumer demand, but by becoming sustainable early it also gains a competitive advantage.

1. TEN LESSONS FROM WAL-MARTS
JOURNEY TO THE GREENSIDE

2. TEN LESSONS FROM WAL-MARTS
JOURNEY TO THE GREENSIDE
The idea of greener Wal-Mart would have been inconceivable a few years ago -- laughable, even. Yet now the likes of Jeffrey
Hollender, cofounder of the green home products company Seventh Generation, for years a vocal Wal-Mart critic, says, "Wal-Mart
has become a legitimate sustainability leader... Wal-Mart's enormous size and influence holds the potential to create the tipping
point the corporate responsibility movement has been waiting for." In short, the company once derided as the "bully of
Bentonville" is serious about green, having concluded that the clean, green and least wasteful way of doing business is also the most
profitable way of doing business. And what works for the world's biggest company can work for anyone.

3. Forget all that scary stuff you've heard from
politicians about how cutting carbon emissions
to stem climate change will kill jobs and
destroy American business. Wal-Mart says
that's crazy talk. Greening your home or
business makes your richer. How? Carbon
comes from using energy. Energy costs money.
Which means cutting carbon saves the planet
and saves you money.
So do what Wal-Mart does: use energy-
efficient lighting. Plant shady trees near your
house or business. Insulate your attic and, if
you have a flat roof, paint it white. Clean the
filters in your refrigerator, heater and AC.
Small businesses who follow Wal-Mart's advice
have had their energy bills drop 20 to 60
percent by taking just those steps.
CARBON = ENERGY = MONEY

4. If Wal-Mart stores in California can cut their
waste by 81%, anything's possible. So cut out
the disposable water bottles and use the tap
and a glass. Make your own coffee instead of all
those disposable latte cups. Consider bulk
foods (they're cheaper) and products with a
longer shelf life such as organic milk, because a
shocking third of our food ends up spoiled and
in the trash. Compost. Recycle. Donate.
Wal-Mart does all of this -- and makes a cool
$100 million a year from stuff it used to pay to
have hauled to the landfill.
WASTE = MONEY

5. Let's be honest: we all say we want to be
greener, but when it comes to voting with our
time and our wallets, not so much. So when
Wal-Mart wants to sell green, it emphasizes
how sustainable choices are often healthy
choices: organic baby food and clothes, for
instance, are pesticide free and therefore
healthier for babies. And that does influence
consumer behaviour.
So start out focusing on health: walking
instead of driving short distances on errands,
eating fresh local produce, steering clear of
cigarettes and other toxic products. These are
all healthy choices -- and the green, lower-cost,
sustainable choices, too.
MAKE SUSTAINABILITY ABOUT HEALTH

6. Wal-Mart learned the only way to make
sustainability take hold was with quick, sure-
fire victories that galvanize the troops. Wal-
Mart caught sustainability fever by reducing
the packaging on a single toy -- and finding it
simultaneously saved a forest and $2.5 million.
What can a smaller business or household do?
Switching out light bulbs will garner visible
savings, as will washing in cold water. Or plant
a vegetable garden nurtured with your own
compost -- the single most sustainable thing
anyone can do.
START WITH QUICK WINS

7. Wal-Mart is adopting sustainable business
practices for two reasons: The first is because,
right now, sustainability boosts profits. The
second reason has to do with the customers of
tomorrow -- our kids. Today's Wal-Mart
shoppers are not particularly motivated to buy
green. But their kids are, and Wal-Mart is
listening. Wal-Mart is betting that the most
planet-friendly retailer will win the future.
So if you don't want to spend your senior years
trying to explain to your grandkids why you
didn't do more to save the planet, it's time to
get busy.
LISTEN TO THE KIDS

8. Big businesses have often foisted off
sustainability to a mid-level executive, which
has been the kiss of death and the path to
greenwash. No matter the size of the company,
CEOs have to make sustainability their
priority -- and make their direct reports do the
same.
No one else can.
SUSTAINABILITY STARTS AT THE TOP

9. Starting at the top is critical, but for a top-
down sustainability mandate to succeed, it
must "infect" thinking throughout a business.
It can't be the job of a separate sustainability
team, but rather, the consideration of every
department and line worker, from buyers to
truck drivers to warehouse foremen.
Wal-Mart's experience shows that's where
many of the insights on how to be more
efficient, cleaner and greener will be found.
EVERYTHING IS FAIR GAME

10. Old thinking about the environment perceives
it as a costly regulatory compliance act,
keeping the company at the point where
emissions, waste, toxics and sprawl are legal --
a race to the bottom.
New thinking about the environment
perceives it as an opportunity to use
sustainability for competitive advantage, a tool
to make a business leaner, cleaner, and less
wasteful, beyond anything that regulations
require -- a race to the top.
RACE TO THE TOP NOT THE BOTTOM

11. Secretive, insular Wal-Mart decided to throw
open its doors to critics, inviting
environmentalists and activists inside the
infamous "Bentonville Bubble" to advise the
retailer on everything from sustainable
fisheries to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Environmental groups had the expertise and
the data on sustainability for years, but
couldn't get anyone in the big business world
to listen; when Wal-Mart opened up,
organizations like the Environment Defense
Fund, Conservation International and the
Natural Resources Defense Council were
happy to lend their expertise for free.
BURST THE BUBBLE EMBRACE THE CRITICS

12. By the time there's big consumer demand for
sustainability, it will too late to start (think
iPad versus all the me-too competitors that
came a year later). Wal-Mart decided to get out
in front of consumer demand on sustainability
and found that it served the bottom line
anyway - it pays to be green. But today's
sustainability efforts mean the company will be
ready when consumer demand does catch up.
If Wal-Mart is right about the coming
Generation Green, the biggest business risk
now isn't acting to become more sustainable;
the risk is failing to act.
DON’T WAIT FOR THE MARKET - LEAD IT