The question has been on every environmentalist’s mind since Lee Scott announced Wal-Mart’s sustainability initiatives in 2005: how much of Wal-Mart’s green efforts are genuine, and how much are just greenwashing?

Two articles from Advertising Age this week provide some insight. Both pieces examine the relationship between Wal-Mart’s advertising firms and its sustainability initiatives. The first article, “‘Come as You Are’ to Help Environment”, reveals that Wal-Mart’s green initiatives did indeed start as a marketing campaign and nothing more. The person speaking on the issue? Not a sustainability expert, but a representative from Wal-Mart’s advertising firm, the Martin Agency.

Mark Hughes, director of the ad firm, insists that despite its initial duplicity, Wal-Mart has become a true believer in sustainability. The company has launched a huge marketing campaign around the idea, and many of Lee Scott’s public statements reinforce Wal-Mart’s green image. But Hughes also notes that the company - and its marketing machine - focus more on what consumers can buy to help the environment, and less on what Wal-Mart is actually doing on the issue.

Ad Age’s second piece, “Who’s in Charge of Green?”, highlights the fact that Wal-Mart’s marketing staff vastly outnumbers the company’s sustainability team, and most of the go-to sustainability reps are actually part of the marketing department. Adam Werbach, the company’s sustainability golden boy, is employed by Saatchi & Saatchi, a marketing firm, not Wal-Mart’s sustainability department.

What does it mean for Wal-Mart’s environmental initiatives to be written about in an advertising industry magazine, rather than an environmental publication? Perhaps what Ad Age itself admits: that consumers are increasingly skeptical of corporate green campaigns, and are more and more often calling companies out for greenwashing. This could be disastrous for Wal-Mart’s green campaign, and the company implement more comprehensive changes if its intends to capitalize on a “green” image.

Who’s in Charge of Green? [Advertising Age]
‘Come as You Are’ to Help Environment [Advertising Age]

Wal-Mart’s environmental initiatives have been a major part of the company’s recent attempts to win public favor. The company has made a number of lofty promises aimed at improving its carbon footprint AND its public image. CEO Lee Scott has announced plans to reduce packaging, improve its truck fleet and “green up” the company’s stores. Up until now, the public has bought it.

But an article in today’s Northwest Arkansas Morning News shows that the company’s suppliers just aren’t responding the way the company had hoped. Pressure on suppliers was a major aspect - one of pray few tangible plans from the company - to reduce its carbon footprint. Today’s Morning News article reveals that fewer than half of Wal-Mart’s supplier companies have met demands for packaging improvements, and it doesn’t seem like they’ll be reaching Wal-Mart’s goals any time soon.

What will Wal-Mart do to remedy the situation? Cut out over half its suppliers? We think not. Perhaps Wal-Mart should make some changes to its own business model, before it starts demanding changes from its suppliers.

Suppliers struggle with scorecard [Northwest Arkansas Morning News]