A few days ago, I posted about Wal-Mart and Earth Hour 2008. I encouraged you to write in to Wal-Mart to encourage their participation in this event.
Today, I received a response to my initial letter to Wal-Mart; this is what it says:
Thank you for your message.
Dear Rick ,
Sam Walton built Wal-Mart on a very simple belief–the
customer is the boss. That means we are always looking for better ways to serve
the people who shop at Wal-Mart. Each comment, concern and suggestion is very
important because it gives us the opportunity to improve our overall service.Rest assured that your message has been forwarded to the proper division where it
will be reviewed and carefully considered.Thank you for your observations. It is customers like you who help us continue
to offer everyday low prices and friendly service.Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
I hate to say it, but that doesn’t appear very personal to me; I’m most struck by the fact that they spoke to me as if I were simply a customer writing in, despite the fact I did mention my position within the company in my letter to them. Hmm, I’m going to have to get more creative. Tomorrow, I’m going to email various higher-ups from work. I’m technically the “Personal Sustainability Project captain” of my store, so this whole Earth Hour thing could get some attention in my area, but I have a feeling it’s going to have to be a national thing or nothing at all.
If you haven’t already, please write in to Wal-Mart (for details, see my earlier post) and encourage them to participate. This one thing could cause such a huge ripple affect across not only the industry but the nation as well. One of the biggest obstacles I’ve seen to living environmentally conscience lives is that far too few people and companies are living responsibly in a visible way. If no one seems to be making a difference, the attitude of “Well, what good can I do?” easily creeps up.
Write Wal-Mart. Tell them to turn off their lights for one hour. If they truly believe in what they’ve been saying about wanting to help the environment, they should jump at this chance to make such a huge impact!
If the city of Sydney, Australia, can do it; so can Wal-Mart… so can America!
