Friday, February 15, 2008

LISSA’S: I’m Green, just don’t look

Recently, Wal-Mart has been trying to stress to everyone about how environmentally friendly they have become. They want to be considered the "Green" store. But there is still an ugly truth to the corporate giant.


According to The Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina, outside of Charleston, is an area called James Island. Wal-Mart is planning on building a new store at this location. They are having to get Government permits to build here. Sadly, the first permit has been granted. They are now authorized to be able to cut down 30 grand trees in protected land. They are now just waiting for their second permit. This permit will give them the rights to fill in 3 acres of protected wetlands. James Island already has a 123,000 square foot facility, but Wal-Mart wants to expand to 176,000 square foot. Instead of adding on to the existing building, they would rather destroy protected wetlands. But they have agreed to demolish the older location. So, wetlands are being destroyed for basically no reason. To add insult to injury, the location is directly behind the existing Wal-Mart.


So, Green is only a means of saving the environment that they cannot use for themselves and to get customer loyality. Taking this same idea to the Sherman Wal-Mart store. When Wal-Mart first began the whole Green issue and what each employee could do, they put a large poster in the break room. This poster detailed how this one store would recycle a certain amount of cardboard, plastic and aluminum in the final six months of the year. They were supposed to fill it in to show how they were approaching their goal. But this is where it ended. The poster was hung. The pledge in tons of cardboard, aluminum, and plastic were filled in, but never updated. The year has ended, and the end results: zeroes across the board. Nothing done.


So, there it is. Wal-Mart: Green while you are looking, but not caring when you are not.

No comments: