A new generation at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart will now carry Seventh Generation Products. Courtesy Wiimedia

When Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) announced in July that it would carry Seventh Generation products in more than 1,500 retail stores and through its online retail portal, it didn’t just expand its offering of household cleaning supplies: It showed that it had won over one of its more vocal critics.

“There’s no question when Wal-Mart pays attention to environmental issues they are given a validity and importance that is unique because they are the biggest corporation in the world,” co-founder and then Seventh Generation CEO Jeffrey Hollender told Sustainable Industries in an interview in 2006. At the time, he added that Wal-Mart’s sustainability efforts are compromised by a lack of transparency and companywide commitment to social responsibility.

Hollender, who handed over the CEO reins in 2009 to former PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) executive Chuck Maniscalco and now goes by the title Chief Inspired Protagonist, has since changed his tune. “Wal-Mart isn’t the same company it was five years ago,” he wrote on his company’s blog in July.

In recent years Hollender has taken on an informal adviser role on some of Wal-Mart’s sustainability initiatives, which have included setting greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and an announcement in 2009 that it would create a sustainability index to identify the environmental and social impacts of all the products on its shelves.

Hollender has more recently touted Wal-Mart, which reported $405 billion in sales for FY2010, as “a serious sustainability leader.” The decision will also allow Seventh Generation, which is already sold through large retailers including Target (NYSE: TGT), Whole Foods (Nasdaq: WMFI) and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), to reach more consumers in more locations.

Seventh Generation says it also plans to partner with Wal-Mart on its chemical-intensive products initiative, which focuses on ingredient screening and consumer education.