Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) wants its massive cadre of Chinese suppliers to become more "green" in their operations. Since Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott is apparently hell-bent on his retailer becoming the most ecologically-conservationist company in the world, this is a move that should have come in 2006, to be honest. Is it just lip service, or does Scott really intend to tell his Chinese suppliers how to conduct their own internal business?

Reducing waste and emissions is the push here. Wal-Mart is already requiring retailer consumer packaging waste reductions along with a whole bevy of other green initiatives, such as making more energy-efficient products and packaging that is more easily recyclable. In fact, Scott has said that he's like to have a company that produces no waste and gets its energy from renewable resources in the future. Those are quite lofty goals from a sprawling organization like Wal-Mart.

Scott will also be tackling the issue of appropriate disposal of waste within Chinese vendors who supply to the world's largest retailer -- a back-end type of initiative that is every bit as important as retail packaging initiatives. Although Scott indicated it "would take a long time" for these green moves to happen within in Chinese suppliers, the faster the better. As Wal-Mart moves more heavily into the rapidly-growing markets like China and India, a new wave of international growth is building under Scott's watchful eye. Requiring suppliers from its largest trading partner -- China -- can't come soon enough.

Welcome to the 35th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Last week, I looked at the possibility of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) offering an expanded online grocery ordering and home/business delivery service. From coast to coast, there really is not a nationwide solution to this right now, although several valiant attempts in the past (like Webvan) have failed.

This week a hot-button issue will be discussed: are Wal-Mart's prices becoming so low that the many Chinese-based suppliers that supply all those goods to the world's largest retailer may have future problems making money themselves? It's odd to hear that Chinese companies are starting to say that Wal-Mart's prices are too low for them to make a decent profit. If it's true, then a pricing revolution within the retailer may be on the horizon.