Wal-Mart Canada gets rid of excessive packaging

Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) has been trumpeting its moves into "green operations" recently, as the retailer strives to cut energy costs and make sure it is not wasting any resources in the operations of its stores and warehouses. Things like CFL light bulbs and freezers that don't run all the time have been some recent green-friendly moves. When running the world's largest retail operation, the sheer amount of energy to keep all that activity going is not a small matter, and Wal-Mart Canada, a division of the retailer, is taking one for the team by refusing to sell products from companies that use excessive packaging in their products.

Now, Wal-Mart is already stingy when it comes to the shelf space it devotes to almost all products anyway, but some manufacturers get by with larger-than-life packaging that is meant to showcase the actual product inside the package. All that excess packaging is probably just thrown away by the consumer (or recycled, we hope), but to erase that part of the equation, Wal-Mart Canada just won't sell products not conforming to smaller packaging requirements, according to the company.

Environmentally speaking, this is a great policy for the retailer. It's one that should be featured by the marketing and PR groups within Wal-Mart starting right now. The constant shots that Wal-Mart takes need to be counteracted by positive news from the retailer, and I don't see it enough. In fact, the way that Wal-Mart advertises ecologically-sound policies like this is practically non-existent, and that is not good enough. All of Wal-Mart's recent "green" initiatives may be in part publicity stunts, but they are real nonetheless. Why not scream about them from all the mountaintops in the world, Wal-Mart?