Force of Nature

by Humes, Edward

• ISBN13: 9780061690495
• ISBN10: 006169049X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-10
• Publisher: Harperbusiness

Summary

Walmart, once a lowly five-and-dime store founded by Sam Walton, has become a global giant. Its annual revenues rival the GDPs of major nations, its employees could field entire armies, and its customers number in the hundreds of millions-a week. But the company's obsessive push for "everyday low prices" at any cost has also made it a target for unions, local businesses, urban planners, and, most of all, environmentalists. The company's formidable buying power determines the fate of fisheries, forests, agriculture, and industrial production the world over.But a startling environmental revolution has taken place at Walmart, ignited by an unlikely alliance between a river guide-turned-corporate consultant named Jib Ellison and former CEO Lee Scott. In all aspects of Walmart's business-from packaging to promotions, and store layouts to supply chains-solutions are being devised that, due to Walmart's size, not only save billions of dollars, but also thousands of trees and millions of gallons of fossil fuels. Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Edward Humes charts the course of this revolution, depicting the incredible ways in which the world's biggest corporation is making enormous strides in sustainability-and how whole sectors of the economy, from dairy to fashion, have begun to embrace Walmart's example.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Confluence	p. 1
The Nudge
Exposure	p. 13
The Soul of a Discounter	p. 25
The CEO Whisperer	p. 55
Bursting the Bubble
Doing the Math	p. 73
Katrina in Slow Motion	p. 97
Because Everyone Loves a Good Deal	p. 109
Cotton, Fish, Coffee, and Al	p. 125
Beyond the Box
The Cow of the Future	p. 159
One Index to Rule Them All	p. 181
No Free Lunch at the Nature Market	p. 207
Epilogue: Generation Green	p. 225
Acknowledgments	p. 237
Notes	p. 238
Index	p. 251
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