Climate Technology

Safeway agrees to animal-welfare standards for some products

One of the largest grocery store chains in the United States, Safeway, has agreed to increase animal-welfare standards for some of the animal-derived products sold at its stores. Chickens and […]

U.K. ethical funds investing in pseudo-green companies, says report

Idealistic views of socially responsible investment funds are misplaced, according to a new report from British independent financial adviser Holden & Partners. An assessment of all SRI funds open to […]

Bush will sign economic stimulus bill sans green incentives

President Bush will sign an economic stimulus bill Wednesday, meaning you may have a check winging your way after tax time. Not included in the bill: funding for clean-energy credits […]

Staples cuts off contracts with paper supplier over eco-concerns

This is spiffy, so allow us to Post-it: Office supply giant Staples has cut off all contracts with gigantic Asia Pulp & Paper, citing concern that APP feeds Indonesian and […]

An interview with Google’s green energy czar, Bill Weihl

The phrase “to Google” has become synonymous with “to search.” But soon it may connote something altogether different: “to green.” That is, if the internet titan can successfully pull off […]

Thanks to the ethanol boom, big investors are plowing cash into corn country

Big investors seem to have forgotten how to exist without some sort of speculative bubble. In the last decade, they’ve whipped cash from tech stocks to bonds to emerging markets […]

Umbra on green-company buyouts

Dear Umbra, So glad you were ransomed. (I happily did my bit.) I’m worried that the gentle-on-the-environment start-ups are taking the money and running. First our favorite toothpaste, Tom’s of […]

Range of green credit cards offer carbon offsets for purchases

Major banks in the United States last year started offering green credit cards that use about 1 percent of the amount of customers’ purchases to offset their emissions. So far, […]

Wind-power technicians are in high demand

As the wind industry experiences a huge boom, trained technicians are in high demand. Wind techs must have smarts in mechanics, hydraulics, computers, and meteorology — and, of course, not […]

Don’t let Wal-Mart’s greenish diversions distract you

The following is a guest essay by Alex Goldschmidt, online editor at Wal-Mart Watch.

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Wal-Mart has been trying its hardest to distract its environmental critics. In a carefully orchestrated act of diversion, the company shows off its skylights and light bulb sales. In doing so, Wal-Mart has managed to draw attention away from the other, deeper environmental problems lying at the heart of the company's business model.

Wal-Mart's public relations efforts help hide the fact that despite all its talk, the company isn't any greener than it was in 2005 when it laid out a series of company-wide environmental initiatives. The fact remains that Wal-Mart's energy use is still rising. Until the company significantly reduces the amount of energy used to earn a dollar, its sustainability initiatives remain fundamentally flawed. Several aspects of the company's basic business model hinder this kind of comprehensive change: