Wal-Mart Gives Out Grades

It's the least they could do, and you gotta hand it to Wal-Mart for grabbing the reins as a leader of corporate sustainability initiatives. On Thursday, the mega-corp unveiled the three-phase plan for its all-new Product Sustainability Index, designed to inform consumers about the social and environmental impacts of every product gracing the retailer's shelves. The first press release about the initiative stated that it's “likely to spur companies to redesign products from electronics to jeans.”

At the Bentonville, Ark., meeting, which included reps from 1,500 suppliers, NGOs and associates, Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke announced the plan, saying “customers want products that are more efficient, that last longer and perform better. And increasingly they want information about the entire lifecycle of a product so they can feel good about buying it. They want to know that materials in the product are safe, that it was made well, and that it was produced in a responsible way.”

As part one of the initiative, a questionnaire will be issued to all of Wal-Mart's 100,000 global suppliers with 15 “simple” questions in four categories: 1) Energy and Climate; 2) Material Efficiency; 3) Natural Resources; and 4) People and Community. Suppliers will be asked to report on the footprint of each product's lifecycle, “from raw materials to disposal,” including greenhouse emissions, residual waste, and labor sources.

U.S. suppliers will complete the survey by October 1, with overseas providers arranging individual time lines. After the information is gathered, part two of the initiative will kick in, which involves developing a global database of the information. Part three of the index “will be to translate the product information into a simple rating for consumers about the sustainability of products,” Duke continued. “This will provide consumers with the transparency into the quality and history of products that they don't have today.”

The only problem that critics are likely to find with this set-up is that suppliers are being asked to self-assess their products' sustainability. Meaning that by reporting arbitrarily, it might be possible to achieve a better rating, which could inspire higher sales. Whether this will occur or not remains to be seen. The beauty of it, though, is that Wal-Mart's stance on the index is one of neutrality, thus empowering consumers with the means to pressure manufacturers by force of retail decision-making.

As the red-lipped bubbly salesperson in the Progressive commercial says, "Power to the people!"

You betcha, sister — but we can also sniff the irony of your situation.

Photo courtesy of galaygobi, via Flickr.