Wal-Mart supercenter can be defined as a large American multinational retail corporation which runs chains of different large discount stores and warehouses. The company is considered to be one of the biggest corporations in the world and the biggest private employer. Change can be defined as making something different or to simply become different. This paper therefore will explore some of the change efforts that has been spearheaded in the Wal-Mart supercenter.
Situation leading to change
It is prudent to state that over the past years, the Wal –Mart supercenter has contributed immensely to environmental pollution. The environmental impact of the supercenter across the United States of America is devastating and felt by a multitude of citizens in a number of ways. The Wal- Mart supercenter creates adverse effects on the environment. For instance, the underdeveloped land continues to disappear, temperatures also continues to rise because of the increased emission of the green house gases into the atmosphere. This have raised a serious issue of the global warming and the climate change which is always associated with the increased emissions of the green house gases such as the carbon IV oxide into the atmosphere.
With the space already occupied with the Wal-Mart supercenters combined with the sheer number of the stores which dots the American landscape, it is true that they contribute immensely towards environmental degradation. The situation described above is what formed the basis for change in strategies to deal with the environmental degradation which has been brought forward by the existence of the Wal-Mart supercenter in the United States of America.
The person who led the change effort was one of the executive directors at the Wal-Mart supercenter. He played a crucial role in coming up with various ways through which the environmental degradation resulting from the spread of the Wal-Mart stores in the United States of America could be reduced. He advised the Wal- Mart supercenter to take a proactive stance and shape the external debate by becoming a role model on an issue which significantly touches on the society such as the environment. Since, the advice from Mark Kinsley, Wal-Mart supercenter has taken very commendable steps towards cleaning up its impact on the environment. For instance, the supercenter has tried to deal with some of the root causes of environmental degradation. They have promised to significantly reduce food product package, sell more energy saving bulbs to its clients and to improve fuel efficiency in its trucking fleet.
Such attempts to reduce environmental degradation have made the Wal-Mart family to claim that they have reduced more than 80% of the wastes which could go to landfills from their operations in California. Hey also claims to have reduced the plastic bag wastes across the global operations by about 21%. The Wal-Mart supercenter believes strongly that they have made a global commitment to tirelessly reduce environmental degradation associated with their operations in the United States of America.
However, the people on the ground have criticised the change efforts claimed to have been made by the Wal-Mart concerning environmental degradation. For instance, concerning the landfill waste, the people on the ground claims that reliance on cheaply made goods by the Wal-Mart implies that the consumers now replace the products more frequently than before and as a result, the Shoppers in the United States of America have created twice as much trash as they did twenty years ago. However, much of these trashes go to landfills.
Lessons learned
In order to make this change better, I would recommend that the Wal-Mart executive management device long-lasting ways of reducing environmental pollution. For instance, the retail shops should be located near to their clients’ homes. This will reduce long-drive and emissions associated with it. The Wal-Mart supercenter should also reduce the level of their energy consumption. They should implement various measures aimed at reducing environmental degradation.
References
Roberts, B. Berg, N. (2012). Walmart: Key Insights and Practical Lessons from the World's Largest Retailer. U.S.A: Kogan Page Publishers.
Hicks, M.J. (2007). The Local Economic Impact of Wal-Mart. U.S.A: Cambria Press.
