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Wal-Mart to Measure Sustainability of its Products July 18th, 2009

Wal-Mart is known for its rock-bottom prices, but customers soon will also be able to choose what products to buy on the basis of their social and environmental impacts – or at least that is the idea, according to the company.  Wal-Mart announced today that it is launching a Sustainability Index – an electronic indexing system that will provide information about a product’s carbon footprint, the gallons of water used to create it, the air pollution left in its wake and social impacts related to production.

The company has recruited scholars, suppliers, and environmental groups to help it create the index – a universal rating system that scores products based on how environmentally and socially sustainable they are over the course of their lives. The goal is to have other retailers adopt the indexing system, which will be created over the next five years.

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Wal-Mart Promises to Toughen Environmental and Labor Standards November 3rd, 2008

In their first Sustainability Conference held in Beijing, China, Wal-Mart announced that it will require manufacturers supplying goods for its stores to adhere to stricter ethical and environmental standards.

This move follows years of pressure by advocacy groups like the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) Wal-Mart campaign, in which the Oblates are engaged.

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Africa’s Garment Sector: Making Suppliers Accountable January 22nd, 2008

The demand for cheap production and quicker delivery of “brand” products to US markets is a well known strategy that multinational corporations impose on garments factories in Sub Saharan Africa. The pressure to produce cheaply and quickly is usually laid on factory workers who are forced to work at a faster rate under poor workplace health and safety conditions.

Speaking at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington DC, African labor organizers from Lesotho, Kenya and South Africa told the audience about hardships that garment workers endure to produce brand-name merchandize for U.S. customers at Gap Inc, Levi Strauss, Calvin Klein, and Jeanswear. Kids “R” Us, K-Mart, J.C. Penny and Wal-Mart have all also bought garments from Sub Saharan Africa.

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