I work for a large hotel working to 'go green,' and let me tell you, I'm not sure I see the economic advantage some of you mention. Do you have any idea what all goes in to committing to this initiative? It is actually quite costly to entirely change current practices & processes, purchasing (recycled/green products are still more expensive), training and implementing so many environmental initiatives. As for Walmart...if they are seeing an economic advantage to this green effort and the consumers don't - who cares?! It is a business. Isn't the point of a business to provide a product and service and make money? Besides that, no one should be ridiculed for positively impacting our environment. If they happen to get some free PR out of it - all the more power to them.

@MonkeySeeMonkeyDo: eaxactly.

if any retailer told you they didn't want to be as big as wal-mart would be lying.

and the prices are significantly cheaper on certain items by up to %50 at wal-mart. its plain and simple, wal-mart is able to buy huge bulk, so it becomes cheaper to the public.

totino's pizza @ kmart: $1.50
totino's pizza @ wal-mart $.99

but i wouldn't expect any of you silver spoon fed people to understand how it is to really be that broke where .50 here and .50 there can really make or break how many meals your able to have.

They are ahead of the retailer pack in making themselves more green. They are doing research on ways to be more green and sharing it with other retailers. I think it is a step in the right direction.

On the flip side, kudos to the green movement being so economical that even Walmart sees the benefit of going green. This article makes me happy but people still have very valid reasons for hating walmart.

oh man that was bad..@iguanoid:

Wal-Mart is great. I buy things like packaged food, batteries, underwear, etc. I wouldn't buy furniture or their other cheap stuff, but that's just my choice. But then being a hipster doofus asshole is never about making your own choices.

In short they are doing a lot more than many companies.

People aren't ignoring the complaints against Wal-Mart because it's "convenient," they're ignoring many of them because they're ridiculous and overblown. The company pays its employees *more* than minimum wage. The company integrates "green" improvements into its *new* stores (what the hell do you expect them to do, spend billions to retrofit each of their thousands of stores around the world with improvements that won't ever repay the expense of installing them?).

When they screw up and get caught, they pay up. They do so because they can afford to. They can afford to because they're good at what they do.

Your rant seems more generally "anti-corporation" than specifically "anti-Walmart." Any corporation's main goal is to make more money than it spends. Sell products and services, obtained/provided at the lowest possible cost, to as many people as possible at as high a price as possible. Avoid breaking the law, or at least avoid getting caught breaking the law. That's how *any* company operates -- why the hell does this actually surprise or offend you? It's how most *people* operate, too.

You do understand that from a slightly less cynical viewpoint, this could be a very frustrating development. They build something that will save them money, consume less electricity, and recycle more waste than before, and *people are still bitching*. This company is now so large that it can't do *anything* without complaining. They could announce tomorrow "every customer who walks in our doors on January 31, 2008 will get $1,000, no questions asked!" and people like you would still bitch about it.

So what do they do instead of trying to please everybody? They try to keep the people who shop there reasonably happy so they'll keep shopping there, which will keep the shareholders happy. Ignoring whiners like you is standard practice for them, and I applaud them for it. :)

Huh? What does dimming the lights (thus using less electricity) have to do with increased cooling costs?

Anyone who thinks the prices are enough to matter, dont read price tags and just listen to marketing.

Wal-Mart just isn't any cheaper.

@il1lupo1970:
On a sunny day the lights dim due to the skylights? Wonder how much more they will end up paying in cooling costs?

Also, in regards to a frozen-food section--there should also be an electrocution setup for people who hold the damn door open while they look at the food. It wastes energy and frosts up the glass...you know, the glass that is there SO YOU CAN LOOK THROUGH IT rather than opening the door and standing there like a moron deciding which delicious flavor of pot pie you want.

I love the notion that they are doing "some" good and deserve credit. Russia built some new roads when they invaded Afghanistan in the 80's, of course that was for their tanks to get around, but hey they did some good. For crying out loud why can't people give Russia credit for trying?

Because their motivation, goal, and the full effect of the results far outweighs the outcome. While I might save gas if I took short cuts using sidewalk and cutting across private lawns I doubt I woud get "credit" for my efforts in trying to save gas.

Look at what an organization has done historically, what their goals are, and where they are headed in the future. Dismiss the window dressing of marketing efforts dressed up to look like they are concerned partners in our community.

When you look at Walmart in total they get a great big F. So no, an F+ does not mean we should give them a standing ovation. We should should say we see through the sham you are pulling and until you put forth a real effort I am taking my business to a company that provides value and can make a profit while operating fairly and in a responsible manner. Yes, there are major retailers that get much better grades than Walmart.

This is not about Walmart embracing "green" nor is it really about Walmart saving money. Walmart considers this an advertising "expense".

Pay no attention to the fact that Walmart buy the majority of its products from China, don't worry about Walmart's issues with the labor industry, don't think about the almost sweat shop like mentality that Walmart uses, don't dig into the lobbying efforts Walmart is undertaking to reduce restricition on everything from pollution, unfair business practices, import regulations.

None of that is important. Walmart slapped some solar pannels on a store, used some recyled material, and they "plan" on doing it on a whopping 20 - 30 stores by 2009. Yes that is only 1% of their entire store population, yes these buildings don't meet the true definition of sustainability, yes this only about advertising and results in energy savings of .01% of Walmarts entire energy utilzation.

But hey they are being "green" right? That savings will be passed down to the consumer right? From some of the comments it seems that their advertising is working. This "green" hype is seems to passifying the sheep..errr. consumers.

The Wal-Mart by my house, which I've defended from Consumerist comments before, already has all the skylights. It makes a massive difference... it is so light and airy in there during the day. Kudos to them.

HERE YOU GO WAL-MART: this goes to show there is nothing you can do right! why give a crap about what people think (they'll still shop there) when even if you attempt to do some good, people will just find bad in it. i bet every mo-fo on here has shopped at a wal-mart at least once, and i personally love their low prices, and have never had a "bad experience". and considering that i live closer to the super wal-mart, than anything else, that is my local grocery store, so out of thousands of times shopping and zero bad experience, i'll continue to shop there, weather its green, brown, yellow, or asian, whoops.....i mean to me if they can go green, more power to them.

These were great until a few months after a new walmart around here opened. They stopped working for the most part...lol

I guess it will go away eventually like the fad where everyone gave money for hungry africans and where everyone wanted to save the rainforest.

I always knew Wal-mart was a crap-hole.

i live in a town with a new wal-mart with these energy saving things. it's pretty interesting.

on a bright, sunny day, light comes through the skylights. in response, the lighting fixtures dim. you don't really notice it unless you're looking straight up at the fixtures.

also, all of the lights in the frozen food cases are off. when you walk up to one of the doors, the light turns on... and when you walk away, it turns off.

@DallasDMD: No question that if people consume MORE because its green then it negates any benefit, but thats not the case. If I replace my lightbulbs with CFL, and use the same number of lights, then my consumption goes down. If everyone does the same then guess what, national energy usage goes down.

Re: Green products. Since a good portion of these products were rushed to market I wonder how green they really are when they will all end up in the dump when fashions and technologies change.

@mopar_man: Apples to oranges. Don't be hard on kittenfoo, freelance money is not like a salary -- you pay way more taxes (SE tax, the bane of all freelancers) and it's uneven at best, and you don't have employer-covered benefits. While it's admirable that you don't have to shop at Walmart, not everyone can avoid it.

who cares what the motivation is for going green. it's still better than wasting energy. how could any disagree with that?

@Sam: Exactly. Its the same reason we are seeing more hybrid cars on the market, better lightbulbs and a myriad of "greener" lifestyle products. Customers showed a willingness to purchase them, companies can now make a profit on them, and thus the market goes green

My wife and I are a single-income family and we do just fine without going to Wal-Mart.

@Tux the Penguin:

There's no reason to question it. Wal-Mart is all about making money.

Actually TUX, I think it is very cheesy to try to be green for the sake of green.

In order for 'green' to succeed, it has to be the most economic pathway. If Green pays, then Green will win. We can't all pay 10x more for Solar like you would be willing to.