Green business guru Joel Makower has an insiders take on Wal-Mart’s sustainability index, saying “like so many things related to both Walmart and sustainability, there is both more and less going on here than meets the eye.”
He points out that Wal-Mart’s 15 questions of suppliers isn’t exactly new, since the company had pursued a similar project with its private label suppliers. Grouped into four topic categories, he finds the questions on social metrics the weakest:
For example, they don’t address most worker issues, like wages, health care, and the right to air grievances, among many other topics generally included in this arena.
He also notes that the product rating screen — giving a product a rating based on how well its meets sustainability criterion — is a long ways off.
Finally, he says that while the index will reward better companies, it won’t set a bar that all must reach — at least not yet. “While it can honestly say it is rewarding good behavior, it isn’t really setting a benchmark for what that behavior should look like,” he writes.
Overall, though, he praises the effort: “Wal-Mart has gone well beyond talking the talk here. It’s changing the game. How quickly and dramatically the game really changes will be something we’ll all be watching, very closely.”