Letter from... the US

Are US retailers becoming more eco-conscious? Abigail Rayner reports

It is not considered wise for a US retailer to go around shouting about its size. For years, Wal-Mart has been a magnet for criticism, much of which was rooted in the mammoth fact that it is the world's largest retailer. So-called big-box stores have been accused of driving smaller retailers out of business and killing jobs with crippling competition. As several US retailers become greener and more environmentally conscious, however, they are touting their size as a means to effect change, and it is hard to deny that they have a point.

In April, Wal-Mart, which owns the UK supermarket Asda, launched its 'Live Better Index', which it describes as a barometer of consumer attitudes, and its first national advertising campaign to push environmentally-conscious products. The retailer has identified five products that include compact fluorescent, or CF, light bulbs, organic baby food and reduced packaging laundry detergents, and is tracking their sales to gauge consumer demand for green products.

'With 180 million shoppers annually and nearly 90% of American households shopping at its stores, Wal-Mart is an indicator of American spending habits, preferences and attitudes,' the company said.

Around the same time, The Home Depot launched 'Eco Options', a labelling plan that will guide consumers to products that have less of an impact on the environment. The products, which number 2,500, include all-natural insect repellents, cellulose insulation, front-load washing machines, CF light bulbs and certified wood.

'As the world's largest home improvement retailer, The Home Depot can provide the widest variety of environmentally-friendly products at the best value to more people,' said Ron Jarvis, the Vice President of Environmental Innovation.

Meanwhile, Burger King, once dubbed Murder King by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), recently announced initiatives to bring consumers more cruelty-free food. The fast-food retailer said it would buy 2% of its eggs from producers that don't keep their birds in cages, and buy 10% of its pork from producers that don't keep their animals in sow gestation crates. The percentages are small, but the company hopes to increase them as farmers switch to more humane methods.

It is easy to suspect that such efforts are more about looking than being good. One of Wal-Mart's critics, the union-backed Walmartwatch.com, has called the retailer's green initiatives a 'high-priced greenwashing campaign', and pointed out that mass production and importing by Wal-Mart costs the earth dearly in waste and fuel emissions: 'The sourcing, production and shipping of the millions of products that Wal-Mart sells has a tremendous impact on the environment.'

Nonetheless, Wal-Mart and other retailing giants are in a far better position to educate consumers than smaller, more traditional purveyors of green and cruelty-free products. And because of their size, these retailers can empower US consumers to shop responsibly on a budget.

Burger King has 7,300 stores in the US and sells enough French fries to its domestic customers every year that, if placed end to end, they would stretch to the moon and back seven times. Alerting the many chip-eaters to the cruelty that besets the world's battery hens is a powerful thing.

What is more, Burger King is pressuring its competition to address animal cruelty, and forcing suppliers to change their ways, by prioritising producers that use the least cruel methods of production and slaughter. In the same way, when Wal-Mart launches a green initiative, its 60,000 suppliers have little choice but to tow the line.

Just because US retailers are finally seeing the green light does not mean they have had a religious epiphany, in fact; and rather more reassuringly, given the fickle nature of religious epiphanies, they have realised that green business is good business. US companies can no longer dismiss green awareness as niche, liberal, even unpatriotic. Wal-Mart's Live Better Index has already found that 57% of its customers are concerned about the environment, and while only 11% of them consider themselves extremely green today, 43% expect to start behaving in a more eco-conscious fashion in the next five years. Wal-Mart wants to be there when they change their ways.

Abigail Rayner is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.