Sorry Sophist

I am having a terrible conundrum.

recently, to my general shame, I had to visit a Wal-Mart. I needed new contacts desperately, and their eye exams are, well, cheap. anyway, since having the kid my hips have decided to stop fitting into boy jeans, so I ended up looking at pants too. I had tried the Gap, Target, various thrift stores and a department store that shall remain unnamed (because I can't remember which one it was). none of those stores had anything that wasn't either size 0 or made for grandma's. and no offense, but I'm still under the impression that I'm sorta cool, and I'm a long way from buckling under the pressure to wear pleats. regardless (that's for you Duckie) I ended up buying four pair of pants that are kinda cool, and I don't feel like a mom in them.

normally I would never admit to this. I mean, Wal-Mart is an evil empire kinda store - they destroy local businesses, treat their employees poorly (if ever there was a place that needed a union), and over 70% of their stuff is manufactured in China, so they've drastically reduced employment opportunities in this country.

and then came Friday's Marketplace on NPR. during a special on American business and sustainability they interviewed Wal-Mart's president Lee Scott. and I heard terrible things.

Mr. Scott has some big ideas about sustainability and helping the environment. it goes along with saving money for the company, and of course, in his ideal world people would make one trip to Wal-Mart for all their needs - grocery, household, clothing, medical, etc etc. Wal-Mart just put out an advert talking about compact florescent light bulbs - how they save money and energy. it's what caught my attention, since I work with light geeks. one of these light bulbs can save a person $36 (in a year), but as the advert says, if every Wal-Mart customer bought ONE bulb it would be like taking one million cars off the road. because there are 180 million Wal-Mart shoppers. that's a third of the US population. then they played a clip of Mr. Scott at a company pep rally saying that Wal-Mart would sell 100 million energy efficient compact light bulbs this year. those are some amazing numbers.

add to this the fact that Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the world, and that 600,000 of its employees have taken a personal sustainability pledge, not only for work but at home, and that they are encouraging their family and friends to also think about waste, energy, and the environment. is the Green party going to get in on this?

in October 2005 Wal-Mart started a sustainability initiative that includes SPENDING $500 million a year to meet some awfully quick goals. for example, within three years (meaning by the end of next year) they plan to have increased the fuel efficiency of their trucks by 25%, reduce store energy use by 30%, and to cut solid waste by 25%. it's better than the fucking Kyoto Protocol, and it's working.

Wal-Mart spent a year with outside consultants working out how they affect the economy and environment. they actual took this information and started doing something about it. they installed motion-detection lighting systems. they're pushing their vendors (all 60,000 of them) to reduce packaging, to meet the goal of a 5% decrease. this small decrease will amount to 213,000 trucks off the roads and save 67 million gallons of diesel fuel . . . a year. they're even investigating the idea of converting trucks to alternative fuels that will run the Detroit to D.C. delivery routes.

so, I'm thinking, huh. look at this evil global company doing something good. encouraging not only their employees but their vendors to get involved. setting goals and achieving them. Wal-Mart is a company that makes money, they REALLY make money, and they don't have to answer to lobbyists or pork-farmers. they don't have to worry about re-election either. so when they set out to do something for the environment it gets done. and they continue to make money. the car companies aren't doing this. the electric companies aren't doing this. I'm not even doing it.

shit. Wal-Mart is turning out to be better for the environment than I am.

I still feel slightly dirty for shopping there.

oh, and three little tidbits to chew on:
1 - Wal-Mart is the biggest seller of organic milk and cotton . . . in the world

2 - remember that a third of the population shops there? well, a 2004 poll of Wal-Mart shoppers showed that 76% were going to vote for Dumbass.

3 - and for you Hillary people - she was on the Board of Directors from 1985-1992.