… when it was listed for the first time as America’s largest corporation on the Fortune 500 list, and it’s only now understanding that if you want a sustainability initiative to take hold, you have to focus on the people and give them the right incentives.

As per this recent piece over on Bloomberg which notes that Wal-Mart’s Green Performance Reviews Could Change Retail for Good, Walmart’s efforts to green its supply chain are about to get much more effective because sustainability will now play a role in its merchants’ performance reviews, which help determine pay raises and potential for future promotion.

If you really want to be green, you have to put your money where your mouth is and pay for it. You have to give buyers incentive to consider sustainability, suppliers incentive to be sustainable, and everyone incentive to encourage sustainability. And, as SI has written many times, while their might be some up front costs to switch to sustainable sources, over time, sustainability will generate double-digit ROI any way you look at it.