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[Applause]
the birth of a granddaughter
Hurricane Katrina stagnant stock price
and a poor public image in 2005 these
are the reasons why Walmart CEO Lee
Scott sought to drastically pivot the
company's goals what if Scott dreamed up
in a speech we used our size and
resources to make this country and this
earth an even better place for all of us
customers associates our children and
generations unborn and so Scott's at
Walmart down a path of sustainable
enterprise seeking 100% renewable energy
zero waste and more sustainable products
over the course of the next decade and a
half the future was bright or at least
Scott's vision was but this new
idealistic version of Walmart seems to
run counter to the reality of Walmart's
operations a truly massive multinational
company that spans continents Walmart
has been either the biggest or second
biggest company in the world since 2000
in 2019 it employed 2.2 million people
and with this size comes power over the
last two decades documentaries and
investigative reports alike have
revealed Walmart's reliance on worker
exploitation oppressive wages and
sweatshop labor in order to keep their
prices low so with these two realities
in mind I want to look at another axis
of Walmart's operations sustainability
specifically how is Walmart really
impacting the environment despite
Walmart's size it was remarkably hard to
find up-to-date information about its
climate and sustainability related
actions or rather there is a fair amount
of readily available information but
it's all in the form of Walmart press
releases so let's start off with what
Walmart
as they're doing and then see if it
actually aligns with their actions
Walmart's most recent environmental
target has been branded the one Gigaton
project the company is trying to reduce
one Giga ton of their emissions from
their supply chain by 2030 as well as
reduce emissions from their own
operations by 18 percent by 2025 Walmart
claims in their 2019 environmental
social and governance report that
they're well on their way to reaching
those goals among Walmart's list of
advertised accomplishments in 2019
they've spurred an 11 percent decrease
in fuel emissions since 2018 eliminating
87 metric tons of truck emissions from
their fleet as well as diverted 78% of
waste materials from the landfill they
also estimate that 28 percent of their
global energy needs are supplied with
renewables and they've reduced their
greenhouse gas emissions by 6.1 percent
in 2017 compared to 2015 levels in short
when it comes to fossil fuels and waste
reduction Walmart says it's making
progress but the real question is
whether this progress is actually
significant given the sheer scale of the
company to put it in perspective
Walmart's annual revenue is worth more
than Costco Home Depot Microsoft Target
and Best Buy's combined essentially
Walmart wields the power of a country
and not a small one a large one with
influence over thousands of suppliers
across the world so the pace it sets for
its climate action has a direct effect
on climate change with Walmart's own
claims out of the way let's look at
whether their sustainability efforts are
real and if so whether these efforts are
actually worthy of the praise Walmart
seems to won back in 2005 Lee Scott
sought to carve of road to 100%
renewable energy use across Walmart's
operations after a decade and a half of
sustainability campaigns and
environmental efforts the EPA reported
that Walmart's u.s. energy mix only
included five percent of renewable
energy in 2019 and if we look at the
emissions totals that will
Bart reports to the climate disclosure
project every year it seems like all of
Walmart's emissions campaigns are just
PR schemes in 2005 Walmart's scope-1
emissions or those coming directly from
its operations totaled 4.8 million
metric tons in their most recent report
to the CBP Walmart's 2018 emissions
total was 6.1 million metric tons so
over the course of 13 years the very
same years when Walmart was supposedly
transforming themselves into a
sustainable company they were instead
increasing their admissions
substantially in short wal-mart was
greenwashing
on a large scale they were investing
some resources in renewables and
sustainable campaigns but their efforts
were always second to the number-one
priority at Walmart growth with Walmart
razor thin margins and hyper growth
strategies there is very little room
left for a system-wide environmental
transformation Walmart has built its
empire on externalizing every cost they
possibly can on workers consumers and
the environment so to add back in those
cost would eventually mean loss of
profit this externalization strategy is
epitomized in their low cost low quality
products that allow Walmart to
out-compete other local businesses
ultimately driving costs down and
incentivizing an overconsumption based
economy Walmart may have diverted 78% of
its own waste from landfills in 2018 but
the shoddy nature of many of its
products leads to significant waste on
the consumers end
for example Walmart sold a Miley Cyrus
themed bracelet in 2010 even though they
knew the jewelry contain high levels of
the toxic metal cadmium when they
publicly announced the toxicity of the
bracelets all those bracelets ended up
in the trash and now Walmart is offering
a two-hour shipping option a move that
once again shows Walmart will always
value the bottom line and growth over
environmental concerns in the midst of a
global pandemic and stay at home orders
this move will undoubtedly bring more
and fleet vehicles onto the road as more
people rely on online shopping to
satisfy their once quickly online
shopping is essential in a pandemic but
there's a stark difference between 5-day
shipping and to our shipping offering to
our shipping however convenient is not
the road to a zero-carbon company it's
the exact opposite as I've already
mentioned in my online shipping video to
our shipping has one of the worst
environmental impacts out of all
shipping options
it means inefficient truck routes
half-filled delivery vans and a large
fleet to keep up with such a quick
timeline as shipping time decreases
environmental damage and emissions
increase so with all of this in mind
it's clear that Walmart has crafted two
identities the sustainable leader and
the growth hungry polluter given
Walmart's consistently poor record on
worker well-being sweatshop labor
pressure on local businesses and
chemical waste essentially everything
that isn't related to growth it's hard
to believe that Walmart will ever become
some sort of sustainable Messiah indeed
they have yet to really make that much
change or rather they are making similar
progress to other companies in the
retail realm but as Walmart is five
times bigger than its competitors they
should be doing five times the work with
the size that Walmart enjoys they can
not only influence individuals but whole
governments so when it comes to the
environment they definitely could be
doing a hell of a lot more than letting
their emissions rise 21 percent over 15
years while claiming they are an
environmental champion in this way
Walmart reveals the downfall of a profit
first capitalist economy and puts on
display why capitalism will not be able
to quickly mitigate climate change even
if Walmart dives headfirst into
drastically reducing emissions there
will always be another company waiting
to take its place only through
democratic regulation and a thorough
transition into worker and commune
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