Industrial Ecology at Walmart

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 ?