Wal-Mart Sustainability

Wal-Mart wanted to elevate its green image and drive sales of sustainable products, including 100MM compact florescent light bulbs. The ‘Wal-Mart Mom’ wants to make a difference in the environment to protect her family’s future, but she views green options as too expensive for too small an impact.

Wal-Mart needed to show that being green didn’t need a radical change of lifestyle and that how collectively Wal-Mart shoppers can make a big difference. Online, Wal-Mart partnered with Cafemom.com, a leading social network for moms, to create two custom widgets. The “Make the Pledge” widget allowed moms to publicly commit to a small change and quantified the impact of all the moms pledging together. The “Plant a Tree” widget allowed moms to plant a virtual tree on their profile.

Wal-Mart planted a real tree for every 10 virtual trees. Wal-Mart also recruited 25 moms to blog about the changes they made, what they learned, and how their families reacted. Leading up to Earth Day, Wal-Mart touted a1,000,000 Reusable Bags Giveaway to drive in-store traffic. The campaign culminated into a virtual Earth Day Party on April 22.

On TV Wal-Mart created public service announcements with NBC to show the impact of small changes. If all 200m shoppers purchased a Wal-Mart compact florescent light bulb, water filter, or organic coffee, it would be the equivalent of taking 111m cars off the road, preventing billions of plastic bottles from ending up in land fills, or eliminating 130m pounds of chemical waste. In print, Wal-Mart created a custom 16-page insert titled "A budget-friendly guide to helping the planet" and printed it on recycled paper.

As a result, Wal-Mart doubled its sales goal of compact florescent light bulbs, and the energy saved was the equivalent of taking three power plants off the electrical grid. Media support drove a +16% lift in Wal-Mart’s association as “the place to buy sustainable products.” The Cafemom partnership achieved 12m page views, with 470m virtual trees planted and 40m real trees planted.