Corporate Responsibility | December 30, 2008 |
Whole Foods Criticized for Climate-Change Strategy
Ceres, a Boston-based network of investors, non-profits and other public interest groups, has called out Whole Foods, the $10B natural foods supermarket chain, for its approach to climate change. The critique emerged out of a report Ceres commissioned assessing corporate climate-change strategies in the tech and retail industries.
In the report, which was developed by RiskMetrics for Ceres, IBM got the highest score (79), followed by Tesco (78), Dell (77), Intel (72), Johnson & Johnson (71), Nike (71) and, yes, Wal-Mart (69). Whole Foods, by contrast, scored a paltry 27, placing it in the bottom third of the 63 companies rated.
There's irony in this. Whole Foods has staked out a sizable niche as the country's greenest supermarket chain, yet more mainstream supermarket chains like Safeway and Tesco scored considerably better. In addition, Whole Foods' shortcoming, according to Ceres executive director Mindy Lubber, was to be found in "the word that Whole Foods uses to describe itself: 'whole.' Many of the company's actions on climate change are laudable, but it still lacks a holistic strategy for dealing with this colossal challenge …" In an article published on Harvard Business Publishing's website, Lubber specifically criticized Whole Foods for not measuring its greenhouse gas emissions or setting targets to reduce those emissions. And indeed, these are glaring omissions for a company as ostensibly green as Whole Foods.
There are two morals to this story.
First, there is merit to Lubber's argument that climate change requires an integrated response from corporations. Global warming is, as Lubber notes, a "colossal" challenge. It won't be enough to implement piecemeal measures. Comprehensive corporation-wide strategies are required, starting at the Board level and extending throughout a company's operations.
The Ceres report found that even industry leaders have a way to go on this. For instance, none of the companies profiled in the report tied "C-Suite" compensation to climate-change performance. This would seem to be an essential ingredient of a truly integrated approach to climate warming.
Second, having a green reputation isn't always a good thing. It increases expectations, and when they're not met, the blowback can be severe. If Whole Foods had been Joe's Nachos, Lubber probably wouldn't have singled the company out for special notice. Whole Foods is a flagship green company, though, and that brought on the cannonballs.
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