Wal-Mart Beeps Onto Do-Gooders' Radar Screens

As your typical Wal-Mart hater, I have to admit my annoyance at the number of times the company seems to trip the do-gooder alert and pop onto charity-watchers' radar screens. I mean, the retail behemoth has been profiled twice on Tonic alone (here and here). One article was even written — grudgingly — by yours truly.

And here I grudgingly go again. This time Wal-Mart's got the eco angle and the women's angle. Darn it, it is so hard to keep hating (though I'm sure I'll manage somehow).

Anyway, the newest initiative to catch the attention of the softhearted is Wal-Mart's collaboration with the Business and Professional Women's Foundation (BPW) of Washington, D.C., on women's job-training for the green economy.

Wal-Mart has given BPW a grant of $400,000 for the project, called "Moving from Red to Green: Working Women in the Green Economy." The initiative involves giving $60,000 capacity-building grants to employment-skills training groups and investing in various other activities that will increase workplace gender diversity and strengthen women's skills applicable to the "green" sector, where females are underrepresented.

OK, Wal-Mart, I'm detesting you a little less, but I’m looking for any excuse to drink some more hater-ade, so you better be on your best behavior. Like, for example, doing something about your pathetic record on health insurance ... oh, wait a minute ...