I've mused on this subject a few times before, but after reading this article, the subject of an "environmental Wal-Mart" was just begging to be brought up again. H. Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., recently gave a speech that outlined current and future efforts by the world's largest retailer to create more environmental sustainability by using several processes and methods.

One of the more striking ones to me was the corporate fleet fuel efficiency situation. A Wal-Mart PR manager said that in addition to upping truck MPG from 6.5 to over 13, that Wal-Mart would be adding 100 more hybrid vehicles to the existing hybrid fleet of 100 vehicles. This would save over 26 billion pounds of CO2 from entering the air in the next 14 years.

With actual packaging also under assault by environmental groups and anyone concerned with "trashing" the planet, Wal-Mart also plans to change to a corn-based, biodegradable packaging for its produce products. Just changing the packaging on four products, as a start, would prevent 100 million containers a year from being dumped into the environment.

While there are some vocal detractors to this effort by Wal-Mart, the future will tell if it actually holds to these rather grand ambitions of making more earthly sustainability part of the Wal-Mart way.