The movement to disclose carbon content in products could get a tremendous boost from massive retailer Wal-Mart, according to a recent story from Marc Gunther. He writes:
[Wal-Mart] is developing an ambitious, comprehensive, and fiendishly complex plan to measure the sustainability of every product it sells. Wal-Mart has been working quietly on what it calls a "sustainability index" for more than a year, and it will take another year or two for labels to appear on products. But the company's grand plan-"audacious beyond words" is how one insider describes it-has the potential to transform retailing by requiring manufacturers of consumer products to dig deep into their supply chains, measure their environmental impact, and compete on those terms for favorable treatment from the world's most powerful retailer.
Wal-Mart and Congress may be on the same wavelength. As Mark Cohen wrote in this earlier post, the Waxman-Markey energy bill—currently working its way through the Senate—includes a provision (Sec. 274) for a program similar to the one the retail giant is considering.
Tracking the amount of carbon that goes into a product throughout its manufacturing and distribution is massive undertaking, unprecedented in the U.S. (see Joel Darmstadter's look at measuring life-cycle carbon for energy sources). But as Mark pointed out there are models to look toward, “Efforts are already underway in the U.K.—where the Carbon Trust is labeling hundreds of products, and Japan where a voluntary program is being tested with 30 major manufacturers.”
