Walmart's Sustainability

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.

Walmart is the go-to shopping center for most Americans, but are they fully aware of the negative impact Walmart has caused America? Many people shop where they can find everything at once and is in a decent distance from their home, but most shoppers don’t realize what they are really purchasing or the truth about the stores they buy from. If more Americans knew what they were really getting out of their shopping trips at Walmart they probably wouldn’t come back. Walmart has a privative effect on America more than people realize. The people they hurt in the process of trying to “Save money” and “Live Better” are the backbone of the business, the products they sell might as well be used, and their crime rate escalates more and more, and

Walmart is a global employer in the retail industry that employs employees all over the world. We believe Walmart can improve by implementing the following strategies: Cost leadership strategy - this is what Walmart is known for, Differential strategy - a big portion of what how Walmart stands out from others (is different) is because of their pricing, which kind of reflects #1 (cost leadership), Value-creating strategy - again they create value because consumers enjoy their prices and offerings, because of their supplier diversity ..which again kind of reflects #1 (cost leadership), Revamp the external view of its workforce - this one is different from the others and we all know how much Walmart has been in the news for their treatment of employees and some of their policies.

creating a scarce number of jobs available for American workers. Additionally, Walmart employees are mistreated in the workplace. Unions are discouraged and workers ' income are not enough to pay for Walmart 's $75 health insurance. Walmart also contributes to the earth 's pollution in which the corporation had been severely fined for violating environmental regulations. Although Walmart is a convenient one-stop-shop, it’s negative reputation makes critics question buying products.

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

They turned a small company into one of the largest corporations in the entire world. They have completely redefined what it means to be a big business, and have had many good impacts on society. While this is true, Wal-Mart has not always had the best business practices, receiving many different criticisms over the years. Some criticisms include its relations with people and businesses outside the United States, its role within local communities, and its labor policies and practices. Wal-Mart has always been the superstore that prides itself on lower prices, so much so that it has looked to manufacture in other countries for the cheap labor. Wal-Mart has become so big, that it has stores and plants all over the world. Wal-Mart even does most of its business overseas. “Chinese suppliers, or “partners,” reportedly provide Walmart with about 70 percent of the nearly $420 billion worth of goods that it sells globally each year” (SCHELL). Wal-Mart has even gone as far as to move one of its headquarters to China. Wal-Mart is helping China, and China is helping Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is bringing in lots of jobs and products for the Chinese people to buy, while China is providing everything Walmart needs to keep growing as rapidly as they are. Wal-Mart is one of the worst offenders of the global sweatshop problem, and because of this they had lots of criticism of their labor policies and practices. Wal-Mart is not a

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

America shops at Walmart to save dollars in their pockets. Paying lower prices at first seems like a good idea but there is always a back side that most consumers fail to understand. Walmart has many pro’s and con’s. For every con there can be a contradicting pro. Overall the Walmart company donates to many charities, employs disabled workers, lowers medications and so on. All these are great acts of philantrophy but I believe that in the long run Walmart is bad for America right now during this economy crisis.

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

As you read through this article you can see Walmart functioning in the social movement theory specifically the resource mobilization theory. “Resource Mobilization Theory works very nicely to explain social movements because it explains the actions of individuals by just looking at selfish behavior and does not some sort of deviant, unexplained mechanism to force individuals to behave altruistically.” (Crawford) In this article re see Walmart mobilizing resources that would be beneficial to the workers but not so beneficial to Walmart. Walmart is the governing structure of its over 4,000 plus stores. (side note. I believe Walmart is

It is no doubt that Walmart business philosophy is not perceived as constructive. They exploit their employees as much as the law allows to earn a higher profit and maintain shareholder expectation. When they established their presence in a community, someone will get hurt such the local businesses. The local businesses either learn to adapt or be out business. Whatever the case maybe, when Walmart comes to town they also bring other new businesses with them. They are the anchor for other businesses to thrive. The foot traffic Walmart brings allows other business such as restaurants, specialty shops, and even other grocery to build their business in the surrounding area. This support the local economy and employed more worker than would

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:

With every company there come strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and Wal-mart is no exception. Wal-mart sits at the number one spot when it comes to retail businesses but they have had many issues; in particular labor law violations because they did not allow their employees to take required lunch and meal breaks.

Wal-Mart is certainly credited with changing the retail world as we know it with its low prices and big stores with huge selections but it has come at a price. They have struggled with issues that question the ethics as a company and legal issues that question how they manage people. These issues will continue to hurt their organization unless a complete change in management thinking and actions are changed. As a socially responsible organization, their management planning in this area is second to none. Lets hope they take the same effort in improving their image when it comes to ethics and legal issues.