Wal-Mart Sustainable Product Index

I hope it's not greenwashing. It sounds wonderful. It can't happen soon enough. The devil will be in the details. 



*2. WAL-MART TO DEVELOP SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT INDEX*

In a move likely to further drive sustainability initiatives up consumer-product supply chains, retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.(Bentonville, AR) has announced plans to develop a new product index that’s designed to assess the sustainability of consumer products. “Customers want products that are more efficient, last longer, and perform better,” saidWal-Mart President and CEO Mike Duke during a meeting with 1,500 suppliers, associates, and sustainability leaders at the company’s headquarters on July 16. “And increasingly, they want information about the entire lifecycle of a
 product so that they can feel good about buying it.”

Wal-Mart will introduce the sustainability product index in three phases, beginning with a survey of the energy and climate, materials efficiency, natural resources management, and people and community policies and practices of its more than 100,000 global suppliers. In the second phase, Wal-Mart will create a consortium of universities that will collaborate with suppliers, retailers, and others in the development of a global database of product lifecycle information. The third phase will involve the development of an index translating this information into product ratings, the company said.