Yes, Wal-Mart does a fantastic job entertaining the troops, but my real interest was in further news on company sustainability initiatives. Over the next week or so, I’ll be reporting on those. Today, I just wanted to provide some initial thoughts, and perhaps get the conversation going.

In case you haven’t noticed, the economy’s in a bit of slump… and that means more people are turning to discount retailers for their basic needs and luxuries. Sales figures are up for the company, and all of the executives that spoke at various portions of the media conference noted the company’s founding value of saving people money. At some points, I began to wonder just a bit if the much-heralded sustainability initiatives of the past few years were taking a back seat to it’s ability to provide goods (and services) at low prices.

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Editor's note: I had hoped to actually complete this series last week, but my administrative duties got the best of me. So, here's part two on my trip to Bentonville, Arkansas, for Wal-Mart's media day and shareholders' meeting. You can find part one here.

After finishing up at Sam's Club, our next stop was the Bentonville Supercenter. Like the Sam's Club we visited, the Supercenter was fairly new: it had opened in May, 2005. Like the store we'd just come from, this one also sported ample skylights and bright white walls, and had a definite "upscale" feel. One of the executives who met us on the tour confirmed this was intentional for the particular store… a part of the company's "store of the community" concept.

That idea perked my ears up, of course — wouldn't a "store of the community" be carrying local foods and produce in the grocery section? That question was answered before I got to ask it: yes, a handful of produce items were purchased from local farmers. We also saw plenty of evidence of Wal-Mart's organics push as we walked through other areas of the store's grocery section.

At one stop, I was surprised to hear sustainability brought up: at the back of the store, we were introduced to Wal-Mart's "Site to store" program. Think Wal-Mart meets the long tail: thousands of items only available on the company's web site can be shipped to a Wal-Mart store with no shipping charges for the customer. I expected to hear about how such a program improved customer choice while still offering low prices, but the team from Wal-Mart.com also discussed how the program fits into the company's sustainability goals. Site to store items are shipped on trucks already bound for stores where the customers will pick them up; as such, they don't require the packaging needed if they were shipped by a parcel service. For individual items, of course, this probably doesn't add up to much, but, of course, Wal-Mart works on huge scale: the collective amount of fuel and packaging saved wasn't given, but one can imagine it's sizeable.

In housewares, we got to see a visual representation of the retailer's commitment to selling compact fluorescent light bulbs: there were several rows of shelves carrying the a wide variety of bulbs. An endcap display on one of these rows served to educate consumers about the energy-saving benefits of using CFLs, and also gave them the conversion values for the wattage of CFLs vs. incandescents.

Our tour ran out of time, and our visit to the electronics section was cut short… unfortunately, that meant we didn't get the hear the part of presentation on sustainability and electronics. I'll see what more I can find out on this front.

While our tour guides in other parts of the store didn't necessarily stress sustainability, I saw organic cotton highlighted on a number of displays in both clothing and home decorating sections. The notion of personal sustainability was also highlighted, particularly with health and wellness items. This concept isn't one that Wal-Mart just stresses to customers: thousands of associates have also committed to "personal sustainability projects" (PSPs) that involve improving their personal health and lightening their environmental footprint.

My question from the last post still remains, and surrounded by literally acres of merchandise, I still wondered about the pairing of consumption and sustainability. It's tempting to point at the retail giant and say "Look at all of this stuff you're selling… can we achieve true sustainability while hawking such a wide variety of goods?" I'm going to keep thinking on that, but, again, I invite your thoughts on the topic.

UPDATE: I found out yesterday that Wal-Mart has completed the roll-out of the Site to Store program to over 3300 stores throughout the US. Now, I can tell you how much fuel and packaging is saved by this program: according to the company's press release, "As a result of transportation and packaging efficiencies, 1,000 gallons of gasoline are saved each week and 20,000 fewer boxes are used each month."

Last Thursday and Friday, I was on the road again. This time, my travels took me to Bentonville, Arkansas… yep, the home of Wal-Mart. The company invited me down for its annual shareholders’ meeting and the media events preceding it. Over the next few days, I’ll devote a few posts to what I saw, and what I thought.

Thursday’s media event was jam-packed with activities, starting with a tour of Bentonville’s Sam’s Club. Opened in September 2006, this store was a far cry from the one I remember going to with my parents years ago: as opposed to looking and feeling like a warehouse (which it basically was), the Bentonville store was bright and inviting.

A big part of that feel comes from some of the eco-friendly elements the company built into the store. For instance, the ceiling is arrayed with 54 skylights, and artificial lighting is equipped with sensor dimmers that adjust to the amount of sunlight coming in. The walls are painted white to enhance the light, and even the flooring was chosen for its light reflection. LED lighting is used in refrigeration units. I couldn’t get an exact figure on the amount of energy the store saves (because it’s so new, I was told), but am guessing it’s significant.

We also got to take a look at recycling efforts in the store. We saw a “super bale,” a compressed package of recyclable materials that is sent to a processing plant for separation and recycling. Wal-Mart and Sam’s Clubs efforts to recycle materials from deliveries to the stores has been so successful that they now sell recycled materials back to their suppliers. Our tour guides made it very clear: the company is interested in “doing well by doing good,” and they presented this as a prime example.

We also saw a display for “Students for Recycling,” a joint effort between Sam’s Club, Aquafina, and Keep America Beautiful. The campaign challenges schools around the country to hold collection drives for PET bottles. Prizes are awarded to the fifty schools that collect the most material, and all of it will be turned into backpacks that will be distributed “to students who are making a difference in their communities.” Last year’s “Recycle the Warmth” effort converted the bottles into fleece jackets that were given to needy children in communities that participated in the drives.

During the tour, I got a chance to spend a few minutes chatting with Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Sam’s Club, about other sustainability initiatives. He told me, for instance, that he’s given his buyers a “25% challenge”: he wants a quarter of the purchases they make from vendors to be products that are, in some way, sustainable. When I asked him how this is tracked, he made it clear that it wasn’t a matter of buyers having to document these purchases on a ready-made check-off list; rather, the company is working with these employees to educate them on what constitutes a sustainable product. Currently, these employees and others are being encouraged to read Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce, and Daniel C. Esty’s and Andrew S. Winston’s Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage. McMillon made it clear that he wants to educate and empower his employees, rather than dictate sustainability to them. Because Sam’s Club is a source of supplies for so many small businesses, McMillon also noted that there are opportunities available to educate the wider business community on the benefits of “going green.”

When I signed up for the tour, my initial thought was “Ho hum… a tour of Sam’s Club.” I certainly left feeling better about what’s happening with these retail centers. Of course, I couldn’t also help but feel a bit overwhelmed by the rows and rows of merchandise, a feeling that stayed with me at our next stop, the new Bentonville Supercenter. The question that’s always stayed with me as I’ve talked with the folks at Wal-Mart: is it possible to for a company that’s making its billions off of such a wide range of low-priced goods to really work towards sustainability? While I’m impressed by the company’s efforts, I’m not going to try to answer that question now; rather, I’ll have more thoughts on that as I write more about last week’s events. I certainly invite you to share your ideas and opinions, though.