Wal-Mart, Nissan Look to Go Green

Before the listing of eco-friendly innovations can take place, it is necessary to answer two questions.

What is eco-friendly and what is an innovation?

At a time when green washing (utilizing the marketing of green, sustainable concepts to sell products or promote a corporate responsible image) is at an all time high, defining eco-friendly isn't just hard, it is almost impossible.

WE all know eco-friendly generically means to do the earth no harm. So, for the purposes of this article, let's just go with that.

Now, let's take a look at innovation. In the past year, my company, The Green ABC's for Kids has won three awards for innovation, an Entrepreneurial Award from the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center, a 2010 Green Innovators Award from the Northeast Indiana Green Builder Coalition, and the Innovator of the Year Award in the Retail Category from the Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly.

I would imagine that means that our product, an eco-friendly novel idea to help kids learn about green living is innovative. OK.

On a larger scale, this year on October 14, Wal-Mart announced a new set of sustainability initiatives that will not only affect them, but medium and small farmers with whom they do business. Wal-Mart has set an end year of 2015 to meet goals such as; selling $1 billion in food purchased from small and medium farmers and doubling its sale of local produce.

The Wal-Mart Heritage Agriculture program has a wide reach and they have mined for information from advocacy groups such as; the Environmental Defense Fund, Field to Market Alliance, the World Wildlife Fund, Rainforest Alliance, The Nature Conservancy, and Conservation International.

I would say that Wal-Mart is stepping up and into an eco-friendly innovative lifestyle for its store, its providers and the way the world will do business for years to come.

Let's face it, this year there are way too many eco-friendly innovations to list them all, or even make a start, but I would like to list one more, which is my personal favorite.

The 2011 Nissan Leaf. Yes, a car- Americans love their cars and this one is the owner of the most coveted buzz word around, "Zero emission mobility!" Cool, huh? The 2011 Nissan Leaf is a cute little bug fully charged and ready to go- electrically. Charging stations are already popping up around the country- and that is another way exciting eco-friendly innovation.

A couple of months ago I wrote an article for Amazon titled, Standout Green Eyeballs: Ten Green Products that are Changing Our World. I included the Kindle- what do you think? I think that product is pretty eco-friendly (think of all the trees we won't be cutting down!) and innovative to a T or should I say an I? I don't think the innovation took place in 2010, but the price is timely. $139.00 for each Kindle.

Hopefully, in these tough economic times when most people state that they won't '˜go green' because it costs too much, people will begin to understand that frugality and sustainable practice can go hand in hand.

Hey, I think that is a pretty eco-friendly innovative idea!

Walmart Press Room
http://walmartstores.com/pressroom/news/10376.aspx

Nissan Review
http://www.leftlanenews.com/first-drive-2011-nissan-leaf-review.html