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Greenbiz.com has an awesome page on their site entitled, "The Walmart Chronicles," where they are following Walmart's evolution into the green economy, nudged along by the Environmental Defense Fund. Their latest entry is entitled, "A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Walmart's Zero Waste Program":

In 2005, Walmart's then-CEO Lee Scott announced his goal to generate zero waste. Vonda Lockwood, now Walmart's Director for Store Innovations and Sustainability, remembers thinking that the zero waste goal was really going to complicate someone's life. Shortly thereafter, she realized the newly complicated life was her own, when she was handed the task of developing Walmart's zero waste strategy in the U.S. In 2009 alone, Walmart redirected from landfills more than 1.3 million pounds of aluminum, 11.6 million pounds of mixed paper, 18.9 million pounds of plastic hangers, and 120 million pounds of plastic, most wrapped up in their Super Sandwich Bales!

In addition to the 4.6 billion pounds of cardboard that has been recycled since 2005, Walmart has also been committed to reducing its food waste by re-directing it to those in need:

Working with Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger-relief charity, Walmart began the process of enlisting its entire network of Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Sam's Club locations for a nationwide food donation program that was also a zero waste strategy. Recognizing that many food banks were ill-equipped to handle highly desirable fresh fruit, produce, meat, seafood, dairy and other items requiring refrigeration, the Walmart Foundation donated refrigerated trucks and funds to enable fresh food to reach people in need. Setting a goal of donating 100 million pounds of food during its 2010 fiscal year, Vonda and her teams more than doubled their target, providing nearly 200 million meals as the program rolled out nationwide.

Let's hope that Walmart continues the great work and then extends this energy into paying their workers more!

In the meantime, make sure to check back to The Walmart Chronicles as often as possible:

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