Walmart: Sustainability Or Social Responsibility?

Wal-Mart should project a community friendly, environment caring and employee welfare seeking brand image to combat. Emerging threats. Investment in sustainability initiatives like solar energy and recycling could be possible opportunities.

Moreover, they have redesigned their restaurants and background of logo from red to green, which should mean they are more eco-friendly than ever. Besides, Wal-Mart company claimed that they are going to invest $500 million in technologies that will reduce greenhouse gases from the companies’ stores and distribution centres by 20 per cent over the next seven years.

Wal-Mart stores serve millions of customers globally each day – and they do their best to make certain that the products on their shelves are a sign of the diverse needs and wants of their customers. Wal-Mart states they are focused on four strategies and the top one is becoming truly global. (Wal-Mart Stores Factsheets). In 2010, Wal-Mart reduced the plastic bag waste across their global operations by 47.95 million pounds, or approximately 3.5 billion bags. This represents a 21 percent reduction from our 2007 baseline. In Chine in 2010 reduced the waste by 84percent using 2007 as a baseline. Wal-Mart wants to stay on top globally where economics

Another problem that Wal-Mart faces is one shared by all people. There is a concern for the environmental well-being of the Earth. There is much press about corporations that have violated safe environmental practices. Their “receipt, transportation, handling, identification, recycling, treatment, storage and disposal” of hazardous material has been under scrutiny. Also their greatest associated environmental concern is urban sprawl. They have counteracted these problems by trying to become a greener company. They are working to reduce greenhouse

One of the major shortcomings of the report is that some of Walmart statements regarding its CSR and sustainability activities differs greatly from what some outside advocacy groups and activists are saying about the company’s CSR efforts. The Food Chain Workers Alliance on June 4th , 2015 published a 120 page report about Walmart called “Walmart at the Crossroads, the Environmental and Labor Impact of Its Food Supply” where it questions a lot of Walmart’s practices. The Food Chain Workers Alliance is an advocacy group with more than 300,000 members who work in all-different stages of the food chain from the farm to the restaurant. Its goal is to develop a more sustainable food system while at the same time fight for the rights of workers.

Owing their financial success to a huge volume of low-cost products, Walmart is the largest retailer in the whole world. Perhaps it is Walmart’s immense success that makes it such a controversial company. While it is reported to be a key player in combatting poverty in America, Walmart’s existence in a given community can also be threatening to smaller businesses. Additionally, there is some debate regarding whether Walmart’s treatment of its employees – internationally as well as in the United States – is ethical. This paper will analyze whether Walmart is good for Americans as a whole, or if its existence benefits only an elite few. Does the presence of Walmart present a net cost or net benefit to society?

Nevertheless, Walmart low wages, and the large impact it has on smaller communities, are not the end to the ugly affects that Walmart can have on the economy. All things considered, Wal-Mart, feels as if they are creating economic opportunity to the local communities while supporting local supplier’s diversity in the work place, great health care for under a dollar and providing affordable priced merchandise. Wal-Mart argues against the allegations that they do not care about their employees or the local community. Walmart, feels as if they are committed to making a different in the communities while helping women entrepreneurs purse their dreams. At any rate, on January 8, 2007 Walmart wanted to show how much they did care about their

Is Wal-Mart a socially responsible corporation? Discuss using Hall’s article as your starting point and the different views of corporate responsibility presented in class. (This essay should argue to a definitive conclusion).

As much as Walmart may care about the environment, they will not sacrifice some profit now in order to actually help it in the immense way they are able to. These large companies recognize that sustainability is good business, so why will they not actually change? Eventually, they will not have any choice. And by that point, it will cost millions more to reverse the damages. By looking at the environment through an economic lens, Walmart sees the importance of changing but also that the monetary value of changing is not as great as the monetary value of continuing on as they are. Despite already being the largest corporation in the world, Walmart continues to add more harm to the environment because they are still not satisfied with their

Wal-Mart's goal was to be a "good steward for the environment" and ultimately use only renewable energy sources and produce zero waste. Despite much criticism of its environmental record, Wal-Mart took a few steps in what is viewed as a positive direction, which included becoming the biggest seller of organic milk and the biggest buyer of organic cotton in the world, as well as reducing packaging and energy costs. Wal-Mart also spent nearly a year working with outside consultants to discover the company's total environmental impact and find where they could improve

Wal-Mart’s job is to manage these tensions, weighing the demands of customers against the concerns of network partners. To offer a profitable mix that includes more green products, Wal- Mart can retire conventional products in favor

The Walmart Sustainability 2.0 Goal video starts with introducing Doug McMillion President & CEO of Sam's Club discussing the company's sustainability areas of interests: eliminating waste, being powered by renewable energy, and selling more sustainable products. In fact, Walmart ask how they can run their business more efficient by using energy sources that do not pollute air, water, and soil? However, the company is moving in the right direction on sustainability, but there is more work required because they have to start looking at the entire product's life cycle since it affects the company's earnings. Notably, Walmart is a profitable organization, and they would like to continue as such, but sustainability needs to be a part of their continuous

Perhaps this is giving Walmart a free ride in the media/marketing as being sustainable without any parties doing their due diligence to verify the actual numbers. As Senge explained, perhaps “Walmart is using going green to offset negative press for treatment of its employees” due their recent lawsuit losses and settlements (Senge, 2010, p. 114). Although Walmart should be commended for its sustainability portfolio, I believe the results of their goals need to be looked at from proportional aspect as well as how/where Walmart sources their products.

Due to increasing environmental imbalances, it is necessary for firms to achieve competitive advantages in the area of environmental convergence as well. Wal-Mart is putting continuous efforts from a long time for environment sustainability and energy conservation. It also received Aspen Institute Energy and Environment award for Corporate Energy Efficiency in 2009. Here are a few steps that Wal-Mart has taken to encourage environmental sustainability:

Their stores were also designed with the environment in mind, even though there had been no directive to do so from the executive level. These initiatives, as well as their more environmentally friendly manufacturing practices, such as using rail for shipments instead of trucks were, very much in line with the company’s corporate philosophy and culture.