create car frame workThe $2006$ fiscal year was off to a great start, but

that was more than Peter Redmond could say for

his efforts to develop a seafood business plan to

support Walmart$$s new sustainability mission,

which had been dubbed: Embrace the Earth. It had

been three months since Walmart CEO Lee Scott

had announced that Walmart was going green and

Peter was still trying to figure out exactly what that

meant for Walmart$$s seafood business.

Indeed, Peter, Divisional Merchandize Manager for

seafood at Walmart, sat perplexed as another

sustainability meeting ended. Without doubt, some

of his colleagues had not just caught the vision but

were also starting to reel in real results. Although

Peter did not begrudge his colleagues$$ success, he

realized that their progress was creating

expectations he would have to live up to$.$ Yet,

when it came to seafood sustainability, Peter saw

no saving technology or packaging ploy that would

resolve his dilemma. Every day he asked himself

and his team of buyers, $$How can we best make a

viable and valid contribution to Walmart$$s highly

publicized pledge to go green?$$

Walmart$$s Leap into Sustainability

On October $24,2005,$ Lee Scott, Walmart's

president and CEO, made an epic announcement

that caught the world by surprise$$Walmart would

lead the effort to create a truly green global supply

chain. Remarkable not just for its message but also

for who was invited to listen, Scott$$s speech,

$$Twenty$-$First Century Leadership,$$ was broadcast

to associates in all $6,000+$ Walmart stores and

shared with Walmart$$s $60,000+$ suppliers around

the world. Walmart was inviting its entire global

supply team to make sustainability a priority.

Why Sustainability?

In the years immediately preceding Lee Scott$$s

sustainability pledge, Walmart, the one$-$time retail

darling of Wall Street, had run into a storm of

criticism. Too often, it seemed, leaders at Walmart

had picked up a Wall Street Journal, Business

Week, or Time magazine only to see Walmart$$s

name emblazoned across a lead story that was

anything but flattering.

Initially, leaders like David Glass $($former CEO$)$ and

Lee Scott were confident that the storm would blow

over. After all, Walmart had always been the

champion of everyday consumers$$the ones

overlooked and under$-$served by the competition.

Walmart$$s EDLP $($everyday low price$)$ business

model had lowered the cost of living for countless

people around the world. Managers thus struggled

with Walmart$$s increasingly tarnished image. Were

all of Walmart$$s previous good deeds to be

overlooked because of a few mistakes?

Nonetheless, the clouds of controversy grew

darker as critics and competitors attacked

Walmart$$s enormous size, $$excessive$$ buying

power, and labor practices. It seemed impossible

to garner some good public relations among

accusations of discrimination against female

employees, forcing employees to work $$off the

clock,$$ and strong$-$arming suppliers to drive prices

down. Instead of being the hero of the everyday

consumer and one of the $100$ best companies to

work for in America,$$ Walmart was often portrayed

as the foe of small business and an oppressive

employer.

The persistent drizzle of bad publicity had

negatively impacted not just Walmart$$s image but

also its stock price. For the first time in Walmart$$s

history as a public company, its stock had traded

flat for over five years $($see Figure $1).$ This reality

was particularly frustrating given Walmart had

achieved double$-$digit sales growth since the turn

of the century $($see Figure $2).$ Lee Scott and the

Walmart leadership team realized that because of

Walmart$$s size, its every move would be

scrutinized. Walmart had a bullseye pasted

squarely on its back.

Figure $1$

Walmart Stock Price US$ $(1/1/2000-1/12006)$

T he World$$s Shrinking Fish Supply:

What Is Walmart$$s Responsibility?

$2$

Figure $2$

Walmart Sales Growth US$M $(1990-2005)$

The break in the storm appeared with Hurricane

Katrina. As Katrina devastated New Orleans,

creating great human suffering and misery,

Walmart employees worked to help the people in

their communities. Over the following weeks and

months, Walmart responded to requests from local