Must read: Is Wal-Mart's green agenda for real?

Must read: Walmart Digs In Deep to the Sustainability Index

Reading: Labor-Environment Coalition Targets Wal-Mart Policies

Must read: Could boycotts help civilize public policy debate?

Green preaching, blackhearted lobbying practice

Many Americans will have seen the Cato Institute's latest full-page newspaper ad,  signed by several "scientists" proclaiming that "the case for alarm regarding climate change is grossly overstated." This is precisely what we expect from an organization funded by the American Petroleum Institute.  But what about its other corporate donors, the ones busy trying to impress consumers with their green credentials?  What about FedEx and its Green Power?  GM's Green By Design?  For heaven's sake, the Toyota Prius? 

 

Alex Steffen calls for a transparency revolution: a standard way to rate companies according to their lobbying practices, not their green preaching:

 

"The most recent shocking report? Revelation of donations by companies that like to claim green leadership, including Microsoft, Toyota and Wal-Mart, to the ultra-anti-environmental Cato Institute, which recently launched an ad campaign targeting president Obama's climate policies, relying on climate skeptic deceptions. That's right, your Prius purchase may have helped fund an attack on climate action.

 

This is not an isolated incident. Take Wal-Mart. The big box giant has long been known in policy circles as one of the leading opponents to better land use and greener taxation policies (even carbon offset standards). It not only spends huge sums of money paying employees to influence all manner of decisions ($5.2 million in 2008 on formal in-house lobbying alone); it also spends heavily on lobbyists influencing local and state governments (for instance, it spent more than $200,000 for one fight in Massachusetts last year) and increasingly the Federal government (more than $4,000,000 spent hiring lobbyists in 2007). This doesn't even count the much greater amounts of money it spends indirectly, from expenditures on PR to support for industry groups, publications and anti-environmental think tanks which are not formally lobbyists. Wal-Mart is also one of the largest political donors in the U.S., with its PAC alone spending more than $3,000,000 in 2008. How many compact fluorescents would it need to sell to offset the miles and miles of suburban sprawl it's fought to make possible?

 

These practices are not only deceptive, they're harmful. They play on our erroneous sense of privatized responsibility to sell us "green" goods, while simultaneously opposing the very kind of systemic changes we need if we've going to avoid planetary collapse. And this is absolutely not just an American problem; indeed, in our globalized world, companies are quite cosmopolitan in their efforts to corrupt government progress towards sustainability wherever it threatens their outdated business models.

 

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What we need is a standard for corporate political transparency and accountability that can be clearly reported and easily understood by those who are looking to buy an item, or invest in a stock -- a sort of transparency index. That way, you could know before supporting a company if it is a) forthcoming in its political practices and b) supportive of a few critical, well-understood bedrock political issues (like climate, smart growth, human rights)."

 

 

 

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A new (old) poster child for EFCA: Wal-mart meatcutters

Back in 2000, a group of skilled meatcutters who worked for a Texas Wal-Mart decided to organize. 

 

Their union never became reality, because Wal-Mart's response was, "there's no need for you to organize because we no longer need your services."  Jonathan Tasini: "I remember being told this story a number of years ago. In fact, it gets even worse: after eliminating the meat cutters position in that one store, The Beast proceeded to close down meat-cutting departments in whole southern region to make sure the "virus" of unionism could not spread. Talk about justice delayed is justice denied: one person out of that 12-member group has died since the vote, and only one remains at the store."

 

Now United Food and Commercial Workers hope to make this case an example of how EFCA could help skilled workers organize for better conditions without fear of losing their jobs.

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Who pays the emissions bill? China or its customers?

The Director of China's Department of Climate Change is arguing that the carbon cost of China's exports should be met by its customers, not by China. I would be interested in an economist's perspective on this. In so far as attaching a carbon cost is supposed to correct market mechanisms for the externalisation of climate change costs, does it make any difference whether the cost is levied in China or, say, by the Wal-Mart's of this world who collectively import goods representing 15 to 25 percent of China's emissions? Wherever the cost is applied it will impact price and therefore demand, but perhaps the design of the emissions trading regime will mean that importers like Wal-Mart will need to compete with existing heavy industry and fossil energy companies for emissions permits. This could sharply spike energy prices in the importing country, presumably leading to a decrease in demand for the imported goods, which would lead to lower growth (or at least a differnet path to growth) in China. Is this what is best for global emissions?

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Wal-Mart settles race discrimination suit

Wal-Mart has agreed to a $17.5m payout to settle a class action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in the retailer's hiring of truck drivers.

According to the AFP report, the suit alleged that Wal-Mart "discriminated against African Americans on the basis of race in recruitment and hiring."

The suit was filed by Daryal Nelson in 2004, and was given class action certification in 2007.

23 black applicants who submitted claims are to get priority placements.

The store group also agreed to improve diversity training, hiring and promotion practices.

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Author of China's "Silent Spring" shakes up polluters

Meet Ma Jun, China's foremost environmental crusader. Operating in an extremely tricky political and cultural climate, Ma is slowly, carefully, but successfully launching China's environmental movement.

From AFP: "In China, where dissent is often brutally suppressed, publicly shaming powerful corporations for destroying the environment is fraught with risk. Ma Jun treads carefully.

The author of "China's Water Crisis," a savage catalogue of the country's environmental collapse, Ma now takes the fight to polluters, shaming factories on a website run by his non-governmental organisation the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE).

And working out how far a small campaign group can push businesses -- and the officials who back them -- has become his specialty.

"There is a space there, but there is a line as well. The key is to understand both," said the soft-spoken 40-year-old.

"This is the Chinese condition. This is a country that has been ruled in a top-down way for thousands of years. Now you want to do things in a different way? We have to have some patience.""

Ma's IPE and other environmental groups are finding Chinese policy to be increasingly open to change: new, tougher anti-pollution legislation has been enacted, and environmental NGOs and media coverage are beginning to be cautiously accepted. But enforcement of regulations remains nearly nonexistent, and that's where the IPE steps in:

""Public participation is the key to dealing with our environmental problems," said Ma, who studied at Yale University in 2004.

"The pre-condition for any meaningful participation should be to allow those who are affected to have access to the information."

Using government statistics the IPE has created a map highlighting 30,000 violators of air and water regulations. Firms can only be removed after a third-party audit."

Such watchdog actions make many Chinese businesses angry, while others resort to attempted bribery. But Ma, a gentle, careful, and scrupulous actor, threads his way delicately through the legal and cultural landscape.

Ma began his career as a journalist for the South China Morning Post, publishing his groundbreaking book in 1999:

"It was an astonishing book. China's equivalent of 'Silent Spring' (the 1962 book by Rachel Carson credited with helping launch the environmental movement in the United States)," said Mark O'Neill, a colleague during the 1990s, who added Ma's calm approach was crucial to the NGO's success.

"He has made the maximum use of the space, but without getting himself arrested or getting locked up. This takes great intelligence and savvy."

Most of the companies the website pinpoints are Chinese, but multinationals with operations in China have also been named.

Ma hopes the website will challenge the argument, repeated by big firms, that the complexity of modern supply chains prevents proper monitoring.

"From now on you cannot say 'I do not know'," said Ma, who runs IPE out of a small Beijing apartment.

The IPE is working with such multinational giants as GE and Wal-Mart to commit to only doing business with those Chinese companies who adhere to a stringent set of environmental standards. GE is already using IPE's website to run checks on potential suppliers, and Wal-Mart appears set to cooperate as well:

"Former Wal-Mart chief executive officer Lee Scott said in Beijing last year the firm would require suppliers to ensure the factories they buy from receive the highest ratings in audits of environmental and social practices by 2012.

"That is the game-changer," said Ma.

"If you are below legal discharge standards you are out of the game. Only by adopting it can you compete," Ma said."

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Supermarket fair labor codes being flouted

A new research report from the Clea Clothes Campaign finds that suppliers to major supermarkets are forcing workers to lie to social auditors.

The auditors themselves are accused of turning a blind eye to the fact that they know the answers are false.

The Clean Clothes Campaign insists that supply chain worker conditions will never improve so long as the major supermarkets named - including Walmart/Asda, Lidl, Carrefour and Tesco - use their buying power to force suppliers to compete at ever lower prices, and ever faster turnarounds.

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