Serious About Eco? GE And Wal-Mart Think They Are

March 26, 2008 6:10 am Nadia Environment, In the News, Making Money Being Green, People

Green Corporations: Wal-Mart and General Electric
GE and Walmart CEOs
The last two corporations you would ever think are green are indeed green and sticking to it.

General Electric Co. (GE) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. are massive companies that took the initiative by going green a while ago. So was that a marketing scheme, or are they putting their money where their mouths are?

General Electric Equals Green Energy

General Electric manufactures energy efficient lights, wind turbines, energy efficient jet engines and locomotives as well as other eco-friendly products. The company also started its EcoMagination campaign aimed at revamping its image and creating U.S. jobs.

Wal-Mart Greening Up Its Bottom Line

On the other hand, Wal-Mart is trying to reduce its waste through its stores, trucking fleets and greener products while educating customers to follow suit.

Wal-Mart said it would meet 1,000 Chinese vendors to explain their new strategy of eco-friendly business. The surprising part is that either they follow the green suggestions or Wal-Mart won’t do business with them.

ECO:nomics Conference Shows Off Green Businesses

GE CEO Jeff Immelt showed up to the first ECO:nomics in Santa Barbara, a Wall Street Journal conference designed to explore the relationships between the environment and business according to CEOs.

At the conference, the question came up concerning why GE takes government subsidies for creating some of its eco-friendly products when the company claims to “work for investors.” Immelt seems fairly against the idea of having the government increase its involvement in regulating greenhouse gases: “Look, I’ve never voted for a Democrat!”

For Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr., the progress is just beginning. Wal-Mart’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint are admirable, but as he so eloquently stated, “We are not green.” Being a mega-business, their sustainability concerns are about getting rid of waste and cutting costs instead of caring about the environment.

Check out more about the ECO:nomics conference here.

Photos Copyright money.cnn.com, Courtesy Walmart, From The General Electric Company
Copyright 2008 Matty Byloos