Walmart's Ethical Evolution: Business Development and CSR Analysis

This essay examines Walmart's evolving ethical stance, particularly its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. It references a Forbes article from 2019 highlighting Walmart's shift towards ethical business practices, moving away from previous profit-driven strategies that potentially involved employee malpractices. The essay emphasizes Walmart's commitment to global ethics and compliance, citing its 'Global Ethics and Compliances' policy and sustainability efforts. Specific examples include organic coffee brands, solar gardens, electric charging stations, and emission reductions in China, illustrating its dedication to environmental causes. The analysis further explores Walmart's adherence to the triple bottom line of 'People, Planet, and Public,' within the context of competitive retail marketing. The essay concludes that Walmart aims to establish a 'green' brand image to attract customers interested in eco-friendly products, thereby building trust and adding value to its offerings.

Walmart, the new benchmark of the ethical conscious quotient of USA
Introduction
In the year 2019, Forbes published a report written by independent contributor Hank Cardello,
where he raised a question related to the new standards of the business ethics set by Walmart in
the year 2018-2019. He indicated the removal of certain practices from the past where the
employees were forced to go for some malpractices to earn profit for the company (Cardello,
2011). However, we cannot deny the fact that Walmart is in the market because they want to
earn profit and contribute to the economy. “The CSR profile of Walmart indicates that they
know this art of adhering to the welfare of the stakeholders and practices the best standards of
the ethical practices”. The current compilation is an attempt to highlight some of the salient
points to support this hypothesis.
Salient points of the “global ethics and compliances policy” of the Walmart
The webpage where the company has published its “Global Ethics and Compliances” identifies
“standards and control” as a primary ethical practice along with “monitoring and Response
(Global Ethics and Compliances, 2019).” Critical assimilation of this commitment can be done
with the help of the “sustainability” commitment presented by the company on a “global
responsibility” declaration page of the same website. The stories present on this page give us an
indication of the hard work done by the company in the direction of safeguarding the interests of
the local people and the local environment (Sustaibility, 2019).

Global implementation of the core CSR policies
Many examples can be employed to corroborate the above-mentioned statement, the stories
published on the sustainability page of the official website, tells us about an organic coffee brand
retaining the soil fertility, solar gardens for creating an alternative source of energy, in the June
2019, this company has commissioned 120 electrical charging stations intending to create an
eco-friendly alternative to minimize the use of the fossil fuels. Their efforts to bring down the
fossil fuel emissions in a country like China where environmental laws are not strict enough
show their unconditional support towards the environmental causes (Walmart Reports
Substantial Emissions Reductions in China as Suppliers Set Ambitious Targets, 2019). The
stories depicting the role of Project Gigaton in bringing down the emissions of the supply chain
of Walmart clearly show that they are committed to the sustainability of the environment.
Triple bottom line defines the international ethics and Walmart follows equal yardsticks
globally
Walmart’s concern for the environment, support the CSR principles to its very core. The CSR
principles of Triple bottom line of “People, public and Planet” serves as the guideline for this
company. It is very important to have a look at Walmart from the competitive retail marketing
where “Online sellers” of the goods have launched a price war. Walmart’s efforts in the
direction of CSR practices, add a cost to the product, however, at the same time, we cannot
negate the emergence of a new market segment, where customers want to promote eco-friendly
products.
Conclusion

Walmart’s initiative is in the direction of adding a “green” tag in its production facilities can be
seen as an attempt to carve a niche for its product and serve them to the customers to protect the
future of humanity by presenting some eco-friendly options. Their attempts in the direction of
sustainable CSR and ethical policies are well-rooted with fair intentions and prudent conversion
of CSR into a trust-building exercise for carving a distinctive positive image for its offerings.
Indeed Walmart is changing its image by coming up with better and more sustainable CSR
practices and most importantly they also added value into their offerings where customers can
also share the burdens of good causes with the Company.

References
Cardello, H. (2011). Is Walmart America’s New Social Conscience? Forbes,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hankcardello/2019/11/26/is-walmart-americas-new-social-
conscience/#9ae789c283e3.
Global Ethics and Compliances. (2019). Walmart,
https://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/global-ethics-compliance.
Sustaibility. (2019). Walmart, https://corporate.walmart.com/topics/sustainability.
Walmart Reports Substantial Emissions Reductions in China as Suppliers Set Ambitious Targets.
(2019). Walmart, https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2019/04/18/walmart-reports-
substantial-emissions-reductions-in-china-as-suppliers-set-ambitious-targets.