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Can Wal-Mart be "eco-friendly" if it's not even human-friendly?

Stephen Jannise over at Software Advice has recently begun publishing a series of posts on businesses going green. He’s devised a short survey whose insightful results will be revealed in about a week. Go take the survey!

I checked it out after he got in touch with me about it and really it takes two minutes to complete. The survey results will help us all learn about consumers’ points of views regarding companies that go green, including whether they do it for the planet or to bloat their sales and which aspects of a company-going-green are most luring to green-leaning consumers.

In his post, Jannise writes about Wal-Mart, IBM, Pepsi (these three are among Gartner’s Top 10 Supply Chains of 2010), Whole Foods, and Patagonia and what these five companies are doing in their effort to go green. He sheds light on their progress and asks some provocative questions.

It’s a very interesting topic. In light of Wal-Mart’s  treacherous dealings with its own employees and their unions and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s assertion that climate change is a myth (excuse me?!), how green could these companies really go? We’ve got to watch out for greenwashing.

Although he doesn’t cover these points, Jannise looks at the issue from another angle and offers some encouraging words:

“Financial gains may be their real reason for going green, but their success would nevertheless encourage others to follow their lead. Many of the companies implementing these changes have reported a positive return on their green investments, which proves that you can protect the environment and your bottom line at the same time.”

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey believes climate change is a myth.

Wise words. Check it out!