Wal-Mart is cash king in the world of retail, but when it comes to greening and global warming, the world's largest Five and Dime has to call on al Gore.
Called to the rescue like a department store Santa Claus at Christmas, Gore will help Wal-Mart morph from a bad boy image in business practice to the corporate Saviour of Mother Earth,
Still basking in the publicity of Larry King Live from an interview about his recent documentary, an Inconvenient Truth, Gore will walk Wal-Mart executives through lessons on how to save the environment next week, at their quarterly conference on sustainability.
"The conference is an outgrowth of Wal-Mart's mission, outlined by Chief Executive Lee Scott last November to minimize its negative impact on the environment," (The Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2006). "at the time, Wal-Mart committed to, among other things, reduce energy in its stores, improve the fuel efficiency of its truck fleet and substantially cut down on solid waste by its stores."
But it seems that it's people and not the environment that need saving from Wal-Mart.
The company that put Dead Peasant Life Insurance on the map, yesterday issued a directive to keep 40 nervous employees in their St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Quebec outlet to help police search for explosives following a bomb scare.
"Wal-Mart's explanation for keeping employees in a potentially life-threatening situation was that it was merely (to) assist police, stated a media release from The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE). "Yet on the face of it, the incident was an extreme, even for brain-washed, anti-union Wal-Mart managers."
Dead Peasant Life Insurance is the loathsome practice of taking life insurance on people–without their knowledge–and cashing in on the policy in the event of their death,
Wal-Mart was defendant in five putative class-action lawsuits, three of them in Texas, because of its Dead Peasant Life Insurance on unwitting employees. The world's largest retailer took some 350,000 Dead Peasant Life Insurance polices out in Texas before later canceling them.
The media spotlight has also been on some of the giant retailer's business practices, including its worker pay and health benefits and Wal-Mart's image of bullying out smaller retailers.
"Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott said the world's largest retailer wants to be a `good steward for the environment' and ultimately use only renewable energy sources and produce zero waste," (MSNBC News Services, Oct. 25, 2005).
"as one of the largest companies in the world, with an expanding global presence, environmental problems are our problems," Scott said in a transcript of a speech he gave to employees in 2004, titled `21st Century Leadership'.
How does this translate in layman's language?
according to MSNBC, "targets include spending $500 million a year to: increase fuel efficiency in Wal-Mart's truck fleet by 25 percent over three years and doubling it within 10 years; reduce greenhouse gases by 20 percent in seven years; reduce energy use at stores by 30 percent; and cut solid waste from U.S. stores and Sam's Clubs by 25 percent in three years."
But some detractors charge that Wal-Mart is only going green to call media attention away from its less than flattering corporate image.
To them, there's a bigger thaw needed from Wal-Mart in employee relations than the one al Gore claims is creating the phenomenon called Global Warming. Few expect the rampant environmentalist to put people before the environment.
In going green, Wal-Mart is also jumping ship on its own customers, who want access to products without the political agenda, What an irony if Wal-Mart delists common materials like plastic, all just to get into Gore's green books.
It's the plastic used by customers that keep the cash registers going at Wal-Mart.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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