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Fukui is not alone. From Bentonville, Ark., where Wal-Mart has embarked on ambitious pro-environment policies, to Silicon Valley, where high-tech venture capitalists are pouring hundreds of millions into renewable energy, 2006 was the year corporations began acting as if their existence--like the rest of the planet's--was tied to the environment. While Washington dithers, Wall Street is acting, driven by rising fuel prices that punish inefficiency and by the growing realization that climate change could ruin corporate leaders who continue to deny...
When an industry leader like Toyota succeeds by going green, its rivals take notice--as Ford's and General Motors' frenzied game of catch-up demonstrates. But the impact reaches beyond the fight for market share. The mega-retailer Wal-Mart has pushed a slew of high-profile environmental initiatives over the past year, including the construction of experimental green stores in Texas and Colorado and the launch of a campaign to sell ultraefficient compact fluorescent bulbs to 100 million homes. The real power of Wal-Mart to drive environmental change, however, rests in its sheer size, by which...
What makes the transformation of companies like Wal-Mart so remarkable is that it has occurred despite the general passivity of the White House toward green issues. "I'd say 90% of the business community wants more action on the environment than the Bush Administration does," says Esty. So while the Federal Government dragged its feet on alternative energy, business moved into the vacuum, lured primarily by potential profits. In 2005 Goldman Sachs pledged to invest $1 billion in renewable energy, while Cleantech Venture Network estimates that $10 billion in venture capital will be directed to green technology from...
...with rising consumerism in China and India set to complicate the crisis--it's hard not to wonder whether these initiatives are more than greenwashing. GE will sell wind turbines, but it will probably sell even more jet engines, contributing to the rising carbon emissions caused by air travel. Wal-Mart pledges to double the efficiency of its vehicle fleet over the next 10 years, but it's also eager to introduce hundreds of millions of Chinese to middle-class consumption, American-style. "I find it hard to look at a Wal-Mart and see anything like a truly sustainable...
...immediate withdrawal of at least 40,000 troops. He wanted to take incremental steps on health care then, but is working on a universal plan now. He's become even more populist in his rhetoric; at an event in Pittsburgh in August for the labor-backed group Wake Up Wal-Mart, he railed against the retailer for not offering its employees better wages or health insurance. While in 2004 he described the problems of poverty, now he has a massive, expensive agenda to get Americans out of poverty, which would include creating one million federally funded jobs at non-profits...