Dear WalMart - Thank You and Farewell Mr. Lee Scott
Just days before the Thanksgiving holiday, Lee Scott, announced that as of February 1, 2009 he will step down as the CEO of WalMart. The CEO position will then be filled by Mike Duke, head of international operations.
Now, WalMart is by no means a saint, and makes for an easy target as the world’s largest retailer but it is hard to identify another company that has made such a dramatic transformation and taken such a leadership role in advancing green operations and standards in their industry than WalMart.
During his nine-year tenure as CEO, WalMart experienced severe public criticism, plummeting stock prices, and the retailer fell off the radar for the large majority of consumers lured by Target or Costco.
Much of the eco-friendly innovations in the retail industry today were initiated by Walmart, under the leadership of Lee Scott. Just last month, at the company’s sustainability summit in China last month, Lee Scott laid out even stricter environmental standards, saying;
“Our goal is for the supplier factories to meet or exceed all social and environmental laws and regulations” Wal-Mart President and CEO Scott told the gathering on Wednesday. “I want to be direct: My intention here is to send a strong message about how serious we are. Meeting social and environmental standards is not optional.”
Followed by this stern statement; “If they still do not improve, they will be banned from making products for Wal-Mart,” Scott said.
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During the time Lee Scott served as CEO, Walmart undertook major green initiatives such as declaring that it would only sell concentrated liquid laundry detergent, creating a Packaging Scorecard to reduce waste, a plastic bag reduction of 33% by 2013, launching the Green Chill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership, sourcing over $400 million in locally grown produce, launching the Green Jobs Council, and became the buyer for the Clinton Climate Initiative. The list could go on.
Sure they’re not perfect, but to quote Dave Roberts over at grist.org from a few years back “So, for progressives to say, ‘sorry, you get no thanks from me until you green and improve labor standards’ is to reject the good in favor of the perfect”. Though there will always be critics, and many other issues to address, I’d like to tip my hat to Lee Scott for identifying, crafting and executing strategies that have pushed the retail industry, and it’s suppliers, towards more socially responsibly and sustainable business operations. We can only hope that Mr. Duke continues to move the industry forward to tackle the myriad of environmental issues we face.
