Sustainable is Good | Where design, lifestyle and packaging meet

Wal-Mart Stores Hosting CFL Recycling Event

Wal-Mart teams up with Waste Management LampTracker for CFL recycling.  LampTracker, a provider of mail-back recycling for fluorescent lighting, was recently acquired by Waste Management.

The partnership will feature a CFL recycling day, Saturday June 23rd, at Wal-Mart stores, Supercenters and Sam's Clubs in several states.

The recycling events will offer consumers a free and convenient opportunity to drop-off and recycle their used compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and fluorescent tubes. The bulbs will be collected at kiosks outside stores from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

CFLs contain a small amount of mercury and should be recycled just like batteries, computers, cell phones, thermostats and other household products.

The recycling events will take place in Minnesota, California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Tulsa, Okla.

The event is a first in the industry and a move some expect will help the retailer cultivate an environmentally friendly image and perhaps drive sales.

"The secret to retailing is, 'How do you drive footsteps?'  retail consultant Howard Davidowitz told the Pioneer Press. "Any time you drive people into your stores, you win."

Other retailers have been making similar efforts "but no one as boldly and consistently" as Wal-Mart in the last year, said Joel Makower.

"This advertisement is one part of a larger effort Wal-Mart's been undertaking to show some green leadership, and they have an uncanny knack for green initiatives that really help build sales where they can really combine doing well with doing good," he said

Preserve Toothbrush Now Sold at Wal-Mart

Here is an interesting story that slipped in under the radar screen.  Recycline is selling its Preserve® toothbrush at Wal-Mart stores. 

In their summer newsletter distributed yesterday the company had a blurb mentioning the Preserve was now available at Wal-Mart.  The decision was apparently made in April and was not well publicized... perhaps intentionally?

Recycline said their decision to sell at Wal-Mart was, "not a obvious choice."  "We weighed the pros and cons of working with a retailer that has the broadest reach of any in the world but has been critiqued as having some of the least impressive environmental and social practices," said the company's Founder & President Eric Hudson.

Recycline presented their decision as one that helps engage "increasing numbers of people in taking responsibility for the health of our environment."  They went on to say, "the purchase of a Preserve toothbrush will be the beginning of a journey toward more and more actions that reduce the impact on the Earth."

Founder expresses concern for small-scale retailers; plans special promotions so their sales aren't impacted by Wal-Mart's pricing structure

In a letter posted to the company's web site, Hudson says as a result of his decision to sell at Wal-Mart steps will be taken to ensure their loyal smaller-scale retailers will not be impacted in a negative way.  "We have begun special promotions with our natural and independent retailers that offer more aggressive price discounts on our Preserve toothbrush... to minimize the impact that Wal-Mart's low price may have on their sales," said Hudson.

This story is a puzzler.  Earlier we reported on Recycline test marketing the Preserve at Target stores, which seemed to be a more natural fit for the brand.  The results of the test marketing at Target are unknown. 

Selling at Wal-Mart doesn't seem to be a natural fit for a small brand built on a strong environmental image.  The decision also hasn't been very well publicized to this point which begs the question why. 

If Recycline is comfortable with selling their Preserve at Wal-Mart and believes in the logic behind their decision to do so then they should embrace it.

Wal-Mart Products Container Design Wins Top Sustainable Design Award

EcoLab's Proforce Container All-in-One Container with Square Footprint

Ecolab's Proforce all-in-one container design for its Multipurpose and Bath & Bowl cleaning products won the National Association of Container Distributors (NACD) top design award.  The product, sold at all of Wal-Mart's Sam's Club stores was recognized for its innovative and sustainable packaging design which was designed with Wal-Mart's sustainability initiative in mind. 

The design and production of the packaging was done by TricorBraun using studies, computer modeling and simulations to predict problematic areas. 

The 1.5 gallon high density polyethylene container was designed with load-locking nubs at the top that fit into corresponding indents in the bottom of another container for shipment - totally eliminating the need for excess packaging in transit or on retail display.  This feature in the container design also provides for superior stabilization of the load during shipment and excellent efficient retail display.

The container uses space efficiently with its square footprint, meets the criteria of the retailers pallet distribution system and provides consumers with all the things they need in one unit small square unit. 

Wal-Mart to Push Sustainable Shrimp

Wal-Mart sells more than 50 million pounds of shrimp a year most of it from Thailand.  The company announced last week at the Monterey Aquarium's Cooking for Solutions confab that they plan on making major changes in terms of their seafood.

The SF Chronicle reports, Wal-Mart is now requiring shrimp farms it does business with to change their aquaculture practices or lose the retailer's business.  Under new Wal-Mart rules, shrimp farms must be certified by Global Aquaculture Alliance or Aquaculture Certification Council as being farmed in environmentally sounds ways.   

Peter Redmond, Wal-Mart's vice president in charge of seafood also announced the company is shifting towards buying more wild, domestic shrimp despite the fact it is more expensive.

The 50 million pounds of shrimp Wal-Mart sells account for 40 percent of their total seafood sales. The other 10 percent comes from other species which Wal-Mart says they are addressing as well.

Redmond said Wal-Mart has stopped selling some overfished species entirely and has reintroduced Chilean sea bass bought from a certified sustainable fishery just like Whole Foods does.   

Major US Retailers Gauge Consumers Interest in Environmental Products

Nation's Largest Retailer & Home Improvement Chain Testing how interested consumers really are in the environment

Some interesting developments out of last week.  It seems a bit of a who can test consumers eco-tendencies first contest has arisen. 

Two major US retailers are trying to gauge just how interested consumers are in the environment and whether that interest will translate into dollars.

Last week Home Depot announced it was expanding its Eco Options label program from its Canadian stores into the US.  Eco Options is a label to help consumers easily identify what Home Depot considers environmentally friendly products in its stores.

Shortly after Home Depot's announcement the largest US retailer Wal-Mart launched a national advertising campaign highlighting its environmentally friendly products. 

Wal-Mart's 30 second television ads on national broadcast and cable stations that will be aired on such programs as the "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and ABC's "Good Morning America", each feature a woman urging Wal-Mart shoppers to help the environment by buying low-energy light bulbs, organic cotton clothes or concentrated laundry detergent, which they say reduces packaging. (AP)

Print ads from the campaign appeared in Friday and Sunday editions of USA Today and The New York Times as well as other Sunday papers.

The environmentally friendly product ads are the first of their kind for Wal-Mart.

Home Depot concluded its Eco Options launch week by giving away 1 million CFL light bulbs at stores on Earth Day (April 22nd).  The company also unveiled its Eco Options website.

Is Wal-Mart Sustainable?

Is Wal-Mart Sustainable?  No, At Least Not Yet

Rose Lincoln/Harvard News Office
ANDREW RUBEN WAL-MART's VICE PRESIDENT FOR STRATEGY AND SUSTAINABILITY

Wal-Mart continues to promote its sustainability push. Andrew Ruben Wal-Mart’s vice president for strategy and sustainability spoke during last weeks Green Week at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. The topic of his talk was “Is Wal-Mart Sustainable?” His answer, “no,” at least not yet.