Wal-Mart: ''Green' rating for every product it sells

By now, almost everybody (other than a couple E2P commenters, of course) knows that global warming is a real phenomenon and wants to do their part by avoiding buying things that contribute to it. What does and what doesn't contribute, and by how much, has been a vexing question that many companies have profited from by the practice of 'greenwashing' -- making little changes with big PR behind them to give the appearance that they're the right choice for the planet. Sorting out the truth from the half-truths and outright misrepresentations has been a task that would, it seems, leave even Hercules gasping.

But Wal-Mart rocked the retail world today by announcing that it will wade into this mess and sort it out. As reported on Slate's The Big Money, the company on Thursday will unveil a "sustainability consortium" and a "sustainability index" - "an ambitious, comprehensive, and fiendishly complex plan to measure the sustainability of every product it sells." The result will be labels on products that will provide consumers with a clear rating system for them to discern the greenness of the products. As The Big Money notes, this move "has the potential to transform retailing by requiring manufacturers of consumer products to dig deep into their supply chains, measure their environmental impact, and compete on those terms for favorable treatment from the world's most powerful retailer. ... This is, in other words, a very big deal."

Can't argue with that. Although it boggles the mind how one company, already with its hands full in just selling products, can devote the resources to checking, verifying and certifying the multitudinous steps, nooks and crannies of all its manufacturers' production processes, that's exactly what Wal-Mart is promising. They'll be literally comparing apples to oranges (and to wheelbarrows) and coming up with some uniform way that comparison can be understood.

Evnironmental consciousness is getting to something of a tipping point in the marketplace as more consumers demand clear, non-greenwashed information and organizations of one kind or another step in to provide it. For a while, Co-op America, now Green America, has been analyzing and rating companies, mainly for socially responsible investors, but also with consumers in mind. And recently, AAA announced that it would supplement its multiple-diamond rating system with an "eco-icon" for lodgings that meet its standards for sustainability.

But these are binary systems, green or not green. Wal-Mart's proposed index is a more complicated, and potentially more useful, indicator. All of which is good news for people who want to spend their green in the greenest way. But given those myriad different steps, and different kinds of steps, in the production of different products, it's not going to be without some speed bumps, starting with the incongruity of Wal-Mart, for heaven's sakes, being the arbiter of long-term social consciousness.

Even if this process gets derailed, though, manufacturers will in the meantime be pushed to get greener in case they have to be sooner rather than later. So for that alone we have to salute Wal-Mart. After this, maybe we could get the company to clean out the Augean stables...