Multi-billion corporation Wal-Mart has suddenly seemed to have grown a conscience. Wal-Mart, Inc. has vowed its new leadership plan to "expand efforts to reduce waste, use renewable energy and push suppliers to clean up their act," the company's incoming chief executive officer said Monday.
Mike Duke will become the company's new boss on the first of February, and claims he wants to "accelerate" Wal-Marts efforts in sustainability. The "Sustainability Milestone Meeting," which was broadcast over the Internet, was used to set the mood for the company to turn a new leaf. Duke says his plans are non-negotiable. "I am very serious about it. It's not something of the past. This is all about the future," he proclaimed.
Efforts to reduce waste by using renewable energy have been a strategy in improving Wal-Mart's reputation since 2005. The company is now holding more energy-efficient products, as well as selling only concentrated laundry detergent by eliminating phosphate in the product.
Phosphate compounds are "a water pollutant that can damage aquatic ecosystems by stimulating the growth of algae," (Nicole Maestri, Reuters) which decreases oxygen for fish and plants. Phosphates are believed to be the main contributor to phosphate-based water pollution. The company is looking to eliminate the chemical entirely from detergent in the near future.
Duke's Wal-Mart will also cut back on packaging by 5 percent by the end of 2013 in American regions, which include stores in Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Central America, Brazil and Argentina. There are 2,300 store locations within the region.
Duke wishes to crack down on unacceptable products made in supplying countries such as China, and hold them to stricter regulations, including environmental ones. He reiterated the need for employees not to put these issues on "the backburner."
Wal-Mart's shares went up 10 cents at $48.45 on the New York Stock Exchange after the meeting took place.
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