There was a silence at the table.

“That doesn’t sit right with me,” one of my friends declared.

And who could blame her?  She’d simply stated what everyone else at the table was thinking: Walmart honoring sustainability? Really?

To many of us, the thought of Walton money supporting environmental initiatives may seem as unlikely as a Hatfield marrying a McCoy, or these days, Democrats and Republicans playing nicely on Capitol Hill.  And for those willing to accept the possibility of unlikely bedfellows working toward a common good, they still might regard it with a healthy skepticism, chalking it up to an image-driven marketing plan performing at its best.

And that may be.  Corporations seem to behave a bit like children — egocentric and brash, often pushing their boundaries into the morally gray until someone shames them into better behavior.  Enter Greenpeace (corporate spanking, modified behavior, then cue the press release).  But what about positive reinforcement?  Can that yield desired results?

It’s been said that Walmart’s celebrated relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina rendered an ah-ha moment for its leadership — that they asked themselves: What if we used our size and resources to do more good?  What would happen then?  Hence the story behind Walmart’s partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) since 2006, where they have been working to reduce their carbon emissions and move toward a corporate goal of zero-waste in their daily operations.  It’s a tall order, so why are they doing it?  Corporate responsibility?  Paying it forward?  Ask yourself: why does Walmart do anything?

Retailers spend billions of dollars in market research to predict and influence the behaviors of their target audiences in the name of corporate profit.  If people are talking about pink slime in hamburgers and chemicals in cosmetics, you can bet that the retailers are listening.  And if there’s enough groundswell to impact the market, enough to register on the radar of our capitalist system, then action will likely ensue.  Meaning that if a critical mass of people care about the “eew” factor and the moral considerations behind the goods and services they buy, some retailer will invariably step up to take advantage of that shift.

But creating that shift —illuminating the ethical issues associated with supply chains and business models to cultivate the Informed Consumer— is up to us.  It’s our job as citizens and consumers to create (and remain loyal to) that market, to convey what we value, and for what we’ll take a stand.  That shift is what I had in mind when I wrote my essay for The Walton Sustainability Solutions “The Human Face of Sustainability” contest, and that shift is what I’m counting on to propel reform in our country’s regulation of toxic chemicals.

It seems that some retailers have been paying attention to the groundswell behind this particular issue: In September 2013, Walmart announced a new chemicals policy for suppliers of personal, pet, and household products — one that calls for expanded disclosure of ingredients and removal of certain toxic chemicals from their products to comply with Walmart’s new standards.  The move is being hailed by nonprofits such as the EDF, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, the Green Science Policy Institute, and others as fostering real change toward improving the safety of household and personal care products we bring into our homes.  Target Corporation quickly followed suit with announcement of a similar policy in October 2013, and other retailers are expected to adopt similar standards.

Of course I applaud Walmart’s groundbreaking chemicals policy move, and I am deeply grateful to the Walton family’s investment in The Global Institute of Sustainability to incubate sustainable technologies and entrepreneurial ideas.  Good things are happening there, and I expect that some of the work from this institution will help Walmart in its own sustainability efforts.  But let’s not forget all the ground-level work that went into making Walmart and other retailers realize that these efforts are worthwhile investments.  Let’s not forget all the work that goes into creating this market demand.  For that, I’m grateful to you.

Photo courtesy of www.mercurynews.com (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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