Walmart - Sustainability Cotton

With each topic I begin by watching the videos from Walmart and then as I write each newsletter, I immerse myself in the topic trying to find a variety of angles to discuss the theme. This one cotton, is almost as depressing as the one on Gold, which was not as bad as the one on packaging. The point is, this is difficult stuff. I gotta give any business some credit for trying to fix these massive problems.

The thing is, we just buy too much stuff. We think we need too much stuff. The problem isn't really Walmart, it is us. Their job is to sell us as much stuff as they can. Until our entire society realizes that we can do more with less, I don't see these problems going away.

These individuals in the videos are very educated people. They know what they are talking about. They understand the complexities of these things. I still think they can do more. I keep coming back to the CEOs words, "A total transformation of business as we know it." These steps in the video are good, and even small steps taken by Walmart can make a big impact simply due to their scale. But they shouldn't pat themselves on the back too much. They are the largest buyers of organic cotton in the world, but still only 1% of cotton grown is organic. The rest of the stories associated with this business are dirty and sad.