Sold Out?
Signed, sealed, delivered, he's theirs. That's what John Sellers, president of the Ruckus Society, and Barbara Dudley, former executive director of Greenpeace USA would seem to be suggesting about former Sierra Club President Adam Werbach's reported deal with Wal-Mart.
Werbach, who once called Wal-Mart a "virus, infecting and destroying American culture," has apparently been hired on to consult by the very hand he formerly bit. It's all part of Wal-Mart's avowed intention to go green. So far, there's more talk than action, but the talk is both big and bold.
Sellers and Dudley are having none of it. They write:
I posted earlier about the new face of Wal-Mart (if that's really what it is and not just green greasepaint) and it strikes me that Werbach is actually just a bit player in the larger narrative. (Think about it: How many people even know his name?) For now, at least, Al Gore is playing a much bigger role, having just delivered his message to a pep rally at Wal-Mart HQ. Writes Amanda Griscom, who witnessed the spectacle:
Werbach, who once called Wal-Mart a "virus, infecting and destroying American culture," has apparently been hired on to consult by the very hand he formerly bit. It's all part of Wal-Mart's avowed intention to go green. So far, there's more talk than action, but the talk is both big and bold.
Sellers and Dudley are having none of it. They write:
Let's be really blunt: there is no such thing as a green big box that is full of exploited workers selling you cheap disposable stuff made in sweatshops on the other side of the planet. Whenever environmentalists help Wal-Mart score easy "corporate responsibility" points in The New York Times, they set back the efforts of working people in their battle with Wal-Mart, and simply reinforce the flaws of the old environmentalism which Werbach and others declared dead over a year ago.Ouch.
I posted earlier about the new face of Wal-Mart (if that's really what it is and not just green greasepaint) and it strikes me that Werbach is actually just a bit player in the larger narrative. (Think about it: How many people even know his name?) For now, at least, Al Gore is playing a much bigger role, having just delivered his message to a pep rally at Wal-Mart HQ. Writes Amanda Griscom, who witnessed the spectacle:
The pairing up of Gore, this season's It Boy in Hollywood and other left-leaning circles, and Wal-Mart, the goliath retailer loved in red states and loathed in blue cities, seems bizarre on its face -- and couldn't have happened before this year. But now, with Gore trying to spread climate awareness beyond the choir and [company CEO] Scott trying to give Wal-Mart a high-profile green makeover, the match actually makes sense.Which brings me to my concluding questions. I want to know what you think: Is Gore simply playing into Wal-Mart's hands? Or is he having precisely the impact he's trying to; that is, changing the way America does business? Do think Adam Werbach's a sell-out? Or is he putting his name and influence to good use, where it might accomplish the most? And finally, what should the environmental movement's response to Wal-Mart's green initiative be?
5 Comments:
I definitely have issues with all the disposable plastic trinkets in the world but it was my understanding that wally-world was to focus on more organic foods and reduce energy consumption. I think that we as an enviro. community should support those specific goals. Providing they are not cutting down the forests of the world to plant organic veggies.
-_- Wal*Mart should be the one non-organic food environmentalists should eat...and no, I don't mean the food at Wal*Mart. I mean we should rise up and freaking EAT WAL*MART!!!
Is Werbach a sell-out? Time will tell. In the end, does it really matter? We should worry less about petty little matters like that and more about big issues. Whether or not Wal-Mart will begin doing business in an ecologically conscientious way is a much bigger issue. The only valid response is to encourage them to do the right thing and criticize them when they don't.
The critics are right. you can't make big box stores like walmart green. the model is all wrong. it's too far out of balance with mother nature and a few solar panels won't change that
This is silly. When we want to change Wal-Mart's behavior, the rhetoric is "every action counts." But when somebody tries to change the Wal-Mart machine working from the inside, the rhetoric changes to "ain't nothin' gonna turn that steamship around."
I'm all for the grassroots approach. But I don't see the harm in making some noise in the corporate boardroom as well.
Yes, there's a fundamental disconnect in the notion of promoting the virtues of simple and sustainable living to a company whose stated corporate agenda is to get you to buy more of everything you don't need. But you never know where the spark that changes everything will come from. Maybe Werbach and the Wal-Mart CEO will pray together like Nixon and Kissinger....
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