Wal-Mart has gotten a lot of bad press in recent years. Some people feel that Wal-Mart suffers from a severe case of corporate greed and will do anything to make money, even at the expense of its shareholders, suppliers, the environment and customers.

Last year's disastrous Black Friday, in which one of their workers was trampled to death by overzealous shoppers, only added fuel to the fire.

But just a year ago, a summit was quietly taking place in China that could herald the beginning of a new chapter in Wal-Mart's history.

Wal-Mart Sustainability — An oxymoron?

In October 2008, the CEO and Vice Chairman of Wal-Mart hosted and attended a Sustainability Summit in Beijing.

In attendance were the company's Chinese suppliers, who were there to hear Wal-Mart's "sustainability agenda". This was no small affair, as Wal-Mart has almost a thousand Chinese suppliers. Suppliers who account for the majority of Wal-Mart's products.

"Welcome you guys. The party's over."

After welcoming remarks and pats on the back, Wal-Mart began "laying down the law:, so to speak, detailing its expectations for its Chinese suppliers, including the following:

• Environmental Law Compliance: Wal-Mart began requiring all of its suppliers (China, Canada, the U.S. and the United Kingdom) to comply with environmental laws and to sign new agreements showing their compliance, beginning with its Chinese suppliers, and asked the rest to follow suit over a three-month period.
• Stronger Auditing: Wal-Mart revamped its auditing process to increase impromptu audits and strengthen its audit program overall.
• Award Top Suppliers: Wal-Mart will award its Top 200 suppliers who achieve a 20% improvement in energy efficiency. Wal-Mart's goal is to have all of its suppliers sourcing 95% of their products from companies with the highest audit ratings.
• Quality: Wal-Mart demands quality merchandise from its Chinese suppliers and gives them until 2012 to establish a stunning figure of ZERO defective product returns.
• Open Information: Wal-Mart has already begun its new open information policy, requiring its suppliers to name not only every single factory involved in the creation of their products, but all subcontractors as well. Wal-Mart wants to build trust in its customers and wants to know every detail about the origins of the products they sell. This new open policy has begun and will be fully in effect by the end of this year, if not already.
• Boot Non-Compliant Suppliers: Wal-Mart has set a period of time for its suppliers to comply to its requirements and if they still fail to do so, the company will drop them from its list of suppliers.

Is Wal-Mart's sustainability plan realistic?

China treats a substantially smaller amount of its waste water in comparison to other countries, which could indicate just how difficult it will be for Wal-Mart's Chinese suppliers to comply with its demands — There's just no infrastructure in place to treat the country's waste water as in other supplier's countries.

China's manufacturers also use more water and energy than other countries, a fact not lost on anyone at the summit.

Even so, Wal-Mart has stated very clearly that suppliers who do not comply will simply be dropped.

This is definitely a bold move, and Wal-Mart must stand by it because if they don't, they will be going back on their word, and for a company that is trying to build trust, that could be a deadly move.

Does Wal-Mart have a "Do as I say Not as I do" philosophy?

Surprisingly, the answer to this question is NO.

Wal-Mart is taking its own initiatives to address their environmental footprint. One of those initiatives is to lead the way in taking environmental responsibily by improving the energy efficiency of its fleet of tractor-trailer trucks, and they have already reduced their energy use by a stunning 25%. They are also reducing the amount of pollution their trucks emit into the environment. They are even going to be testing Peterbilt's new hybrid-assist tractor trailer, a concept unheard-of until now.

Can Wal-Mart pull it off?

I believe anything is possible, and even though Wal-Mart's new sustainabilty agenda presents numerous and difficult challenges, it's still pretty amazing what a bunch of actively involved, dedicated people with a common goal can do. If Wal-Mart manages to pull this off, you really have to respect that.