Sustainability is more than “Green”
October 14th, 2007
Last week I was invited to attend the Wal-Mart Living Better Sustainability Summit which was held in Rodgers Arkansas for their suppliers. This meeting was chaired by their CEO Lee Scott and his management team. I was hosted by Nancy Stewart their CTO and Rita Carney, VP of Applications Enablement. Wal-Mart launched their Sustainability program about two years ago and set environmental goals for 100 percent renewable energy, zero waste, and sustainable products.
Lee and his management team talked about some of their successes, which they described as a work in progress, but the real message was that even if they were able to achieve their targets it would only amount to addressing 8% of their goals. The other 92% has to be addressed by Wal-Mart working with their suppliers. That was the reason for the invitation to this summit. Some examples of suppliers who were already addressing this were Monsanto with the elimination of fluorocarbons in Scotch Guard and the use of recycled paper on Post-it notes, General Mills with more efficient packaging, and John Madden Video Games with the elimination of oversized, theft deterrent, plastic packaging.
What was refreshing about this summit was that it was not cloaked in “green” hype or competitive comparisons. This event was by invitation only and I was not aware of any press being there. Lee Scott’s address left no doubt that Wal-Mart was committed to this program for the long haul and they were asking their suppliers to make the same commitment. “Sustainability” was described by Wal-Mart to mean eliminating waste, improving quality, and driving innovation. Sustainability was presented as being about real business value and not about creating a PR image. This summit was a sincere effort to enlist the support of their suppliers.
I was first introduced to the concept of “sustainability by Ted Samson of InfoWorld. Ted posts a blog on Sustainable IT. In a recent blog post he clarifies the relationship between “green” technology” and “sustainable technology” . He explains that “Green” is understood to mean “environmentally friendly” and “energy efficient”. Sustainable technology is about planning for the long term. “.. it reflects planning and investing in a technology infrastructure that will serve your company’s needs today and tomorrow, while helping your company save money on wasted resources such as energy and paper; make the best possible use of existing data center space so as to postpone having to build a new one; and reduce its overall environmental impact, which is both socially responsible and potentially advantageous should the government start cracking down on carbon emissions and the like.”
This is basically the same definition that was provided by Lee Scott. Sustainability is about planning, Investing, and creating positive results or “better living” in Wal-Mart terms. In storage terms, a 750GB SATA disk can be classified as “green” technology since it can replace ten 75GB FC disks for the same carbon footprint, but it may not provide “sustainable” technology for applications that need performance and reliability.
We have a family friend who works in a Wal-Mart store. Since she was been working for Wal-Mart she has switched from driving her truck to riding a motor scooter to work. Wal-Mart’s “Sustainability” initiative is an effort that permeates their corporate culture from their executives to their associates in the stores. Through their over 7000 stores around the globe, their millions of consuming customers, their 1.3 million employees, and their thousands of suppliers, they hope to achieve sustainability.
As Lee Scott said at this summit, “No matter what you might believe about global warming, it just makes good business sense to eliminate waste, improve quality and drive innovation around sustainability.
