Wal-Mart

Green-Washing in Wal-Mart

In “Green Washing,” the author states that “Green washing is the practice of making and unsubstantiated or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a products, service, technology or company practice” (2007, para. 1). Nowadays, people have lots of environmental problems such as air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution those reasons are causes of environmental problems. All reasons are related with humans so people want to solve environment problems. However, some people are doing well for the environmental problem, but some do nothing for the problem or the going wrong way for the problem. When people start working for the environment, the first time people would be carefully approaching problem so few problems work out, but some environmental work is gradually departing the wrong way. It shows that a few people who worked for the environment, are working the wrong way. But those people don’t know whether they are going the wrong way or not. So people should pay attention to whether now they are going Green or Green Washing.

According to Whatis.com’s article (2007, para. 2), “Green Washing can make a company appear to be more environmentally friendly than it really is. It can also be used to differentiate a company’s products or services from its competitors by promising more efficient use of power or by being more cost-effective over time,” it explains that most companies want be Green companies. This is a company, which is the most popular grocery store in the world, Wal-Mart. According to “Wal-Mart Stores” article, it all opened in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. And today, there are 941 stores across the United States (n.d). Wal-Mart had a slogan, “We save people money so they can live better”. It is their purpose for customers. However, Wilson (2008) writes that Wal-Mart is not a more Green company anymore, but has crossed are to Green Washing Company. Even though, the Wal-Mart tried to solve the environmental problem, some ways are mistakes so this reason has made Wal-Mart go to Green Washing. These days, Wal-Mart tries to be more close to customers but it can be hard to focus on their environmental problem. So they should change some problems of product in its store.

First of all, Wal-Mart should reduce the carbon dioxide level. Carbon dioxide is a cause of air pollution. Lots of products include chemical resources by carbon dioxide. If carbon dioxide flows into the air, it causes air pollution. In Lohan’s article “Don’t Buy Wal-Mart’s Green washing,” he tells us that, “In 2005, Wal-Mart published a calculation of its own carbon footprint, revealing that its U.S. operations were responsible for 5.3 million metric tons of CO2 emissions,” (2007, para. 8). Thus, Wal-Mart’s carbon emissions have a heavy level of effect in the air. Also Lohan (2007, para. 4) claims “Although the retail giant announced goals to cut CO2 by 2 million metric tons in six years, at their current growth rate, their new stores will use more energy than any of the energy saving measure they are going to employ”. These days, there are lots of causes for air pollution, now Wal-Mart is just the smallest cause, but if they don’t reduce carbon emission, it would be biggest problem of air pollution. So Wal-Mart should have a carbon dioxide standard level. Wal-Mart should change shopping style. And should reduce the use of carbon dioxide in the products in its store.

Second, Wal-Mart should start focusing on customers. According to Harvey (2008, para. 5), “Cutting emissions at the point of a product’s use in much harder than cutting a manufacture’s own emissions, because it depends on changing consumer behavior. Reckitt Benckiser is to tackle this by providing information on how to use the products in a more environmentally friendly fashion”. It tells us that customer behaviors affect stores behaviors. In Harvey (2007, para. 6), he claims that “persuading people to cut emissions could also help Reckitt Benckiser’s sales.” If a store wants to be showed Green company and wants more profit, they should be focused on their customers. For example, in Korea most markets have specific events for their store’s customers such as opening a class about saving the environment. The customers learned how to save money and energy, because some customers don’t know how to save the environment. This class teaches about information of life style and how to live better than before. This is one of the most popular events in the Korean markets. It means, markets pay attention to their customers’ behavior. If a market wants to become a green market, the most important resource is customers. If American markets are focus on their customer’s behavior, it should be helpful to their store’s business.

Third, Wal-Mart should organize its own recycling system. In Korea, when people go to a market, they should buy the plastic bag. Each bag has a 50 cent cost. It was started in 2000; this time Koreans say it is very hard on customers because customers should bring reusable bag every shopping trip. The first time, the plastic bag has a 20 cent, cost so people thought it can be available to buy. But after a time, markets are going up for plastic bag’s cost so now it is 50 cents. And if you buy plastic bags and then return it back, they return 25 cents for each bag. This system influences customer’s behavior, so most Korean customers use reusable bags. It is very common in Korea. According to Magestro (2005, para. 5), “The number of plastic bags deposited into U.S. landfills has doubled in the past 15 years, and the 1.63 million tons thrown away in 2003 alone would fill Ohio Stadium to the top six times.” Therefore, Wal-Mart should encourage customers to use reusable bags. If people waste plastic bags, it will be a cause of soil pollution. So Wal-Mart should organize its own recycling system; furthermore, customers should too. Actually, this is related to a focus on customers. If Wal-Mart encouraged people to do recycling system, that would be helpful to both Wal-Mart and customer.

Opponents say Wal-Mart is doing well in its Green Mission. They want to solve the environmental problem, so they have tried several ways. In “Wal-Mart: greenwashing or good business sense?” the author states that “Last summer Fortune reported that by eliminating excess packaging on their private-label line of toys, kid connection, Wal-Mart saved $2.4 million a year in shipping costs, 3,800 trees, and one million barrels of oil. Fortune also reported that the sandwich balers installed in the stores to recycle and sell plastic have added $28 million to the bottom line” (Hollis, 2007, para. 9). However, it is just an outside problem. Wal-Mart won’t pay attention to its own store’s problem. Wilson (2008) claims that “Students from two local elementary schools are collecting plastic shopping bags as part of a contest called the ‘Wal-Mart Kids Recycling Challenge,’ and company officials are hoping more schools join in” (para. 2). If Wal-Mart didn’t waste plastic bags; they wouldn’t need to collect them from elementary school students. It will improve the appearance of Wal-Mart’s image. Some people wondered why they had to collect plastic bags again. In the beginning, Wal-Mart tried to reduce plastic bags. They don’t need to do this campaign.

In conclusion, Wal-Mart has tried to solve the environmental problem; it is a good attitude. Nevertheless, the environment is still having a problem. It shows that Wal-Mart has lots of problems with their store. They should focus on their store’s problem. Wal-Mart tries to change their old habits. In Korea there are many kinds of markets. Korea had Wal-Mart stores, but now they don’t exist. This is a reason; Korea’s markets are trying to change many things for the environment, but Wal-Mart can’t change the same as a Korean market. It shows that Wal-Mart should transfer to a basic form. If people want to change something, they will transfer the basic foundation; however, they left out the first step; they aren’t faced with the basic problem. Whether it changes or not, it is related to the environment. There are basic methods, such as reducing carbon dioxide level, focusing on customers, and organizing recycling system. Those reasons would make better Wal-Mart also a shorter way to Green Company.



References

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