Walmart Mandates Green Labels

The world's largest retailer is leading the way in helping consumers know the impacts of the products they buy.  Announced on Wednesday, Walmart is planning to mandate eco-ratings on all products sold in their stores.  These ratings, similar to those provided by the GoodGuide, will grade a product on environmental and societal factors.

This step to create an electronic index of ratings is a bold step by the largest retailer, who is continually spearheading new green initiatives.  The guide will be created by mandating that all 100,000 of Walmart's suppliers answer fifteen questions such as, “Have you set publicly available greenhouse gas reduction targets? If yes, what are those targets?”  These answers will be entered into a matrix created by scholars and experts to produce a simple score that the consumer can read on the package.

The New York Times wrote about this effort and the reason why it is importannt.  Simply as the largest retailer in the world, Walmart has the power to make its suppliers do anything it wants.  Then if Walmart adopts a standard, the rest of the retail sector will soon follow.  (i.e. the concentrated detergent example given in the Times article.)

Walmart is hoping to make their matrix the standard for retailers, which is extremely likely.  This is the biggest story I have reported on in the last few weeks because this will not only change the way products are retailed in America, but the entire world.  Truly exciting.