Hugemongous retailer Wal-Mart released its first “sustainability report” yesterday after having delayed its release several times. In it, the company touts its recent efforts to green its operations, while also admitting it has a long way to go. “We make no claims of being a green company,” said company CEO H. Lee Scott. No argument there. But Wal-Mart said it met its goal of selling 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs since last November and claimed to have increased the energy efficiency of its buildings and its truck fleet by 15 percent since 2005. The company has also set a goal to reduce the solid waste from its U.S. stores 25 percent by next year. But mostly, the report found there’s not much wrong with business as usual. “We have found that there is no conflict between our business model of everyday low costs and everyday low prices and being a more sustainable business,” Scott said in the report. Critics countered that if “sustainability” can be used to describe Wal-Mart’s business model, the word is meaningless anyway.
