I found an interesting article about an interesting development that could be of interest for Industrial Ecology... The article was originally published in "Nikkei Ecology" by Bennett Cohen (an Analyst of the Rocky Mountain Institute). I quote below a couple of abstracts. You can find the whole article
in this link. "Back
in
July,
Walmart
made
an
announcement
[of increased interest for the Industrial Ecology community]. Walmart
required that
its
100,000‐plus
suppliers
disclose
the
ecological
impacts
[that
their
products
and
operations
create throughout their life cycle].
Walmart
is
collaborating
with
Arizona State
University
and
the
University
of
Arkansas
to
form
a
consortium
that
will
collaborate
with
suppliers,
retailers,
NGOs
and
government
to
'develop
a
global
database
of
information
on
the
life cycle
of
products'.
Walmart
plans
to
let
anyone
use
the
database.
Once
the
database
is
complete,
Walmart
plans
to
offer
customers
information
on
the
ecological
impacts
of
each
product
it
sells.
The
information
will
be
a
simple, convenient,
and
easy
to
understand
rating.
The
goal
is
to
bring
currently
invisible
environmental
impacts
to
light.
Presumably,
customers
will
gravitate
toward
products
with
a
better
score
on
the
sustainability
index,
shifting
demand
toward
more
sustainable
products,
and
spurring
innovation.
As
the
world’s
largest
public
corporation
in
terms
of
revenue,
Walmart
has
the
power
to
fundamentally
change
the
rules
of
business.
The
company’s
pioneering
work
on
the
sustainability
index
is
a
giant
leap
toward
the
industrial
ecologists’
quest
to
transform
our
linear
industrial
system
into
a
cyclical
ecosystem."
Is it ?
