Edward Humes covers some of this transformation in his book Force of Nature, The Unlikely Story of Wal Mart's Green Revolution.
From the introduction:
Wal Mart is proposing to go public with product information that has always been kept secret or that hasn't existed at all. Few really know where the stuff inside their toothpaste tubes or frying pans or hard drives comes from or how they are made - at least until some sort of contamination or sweatshop scandal erupts, long after the harm to the public and the bottom line is done. So many things on the shelf and in the home are black holes, from what happens to the plastic tops on your shampoo bottles (nothing - most are nonrecyclable) to the key ingredients in leading brands of perfume, mentioned only as trade-secret "fragrance" on labels (but containing hormone disrupters, allergens, asthma triggers, and chemicals linked to headaches, infertility and cancer.) Because finding this out requires extensive investigation, few people notice the lack of truly useful information about products filling their homes. And this blindness is not just on the consumer end of the business. Not even the companies that make these things like to trace the origins of the parts and chemicals and raw materials they use - they fear the information and just how bad it would reveal so many products and companies to be. And when they do have it, they hide it.
Not this isn't for some benevolent purpose - Wal Mart understands that to stay competitive and relevant, an evolution of business practice must occur and that by embracing sustainability, Wal Mart can be at the front of the pack.
And if you don't like Wal Mart, don't shop there.
No comments:
Post a Comment