Shifts in Corporate Environmental Regulation

A few days ago I attended a meeting put on by the National Association of Environmental Managers (NAEM). NAEM offers an important service by enabling mid-level corporate EHS and Sustainability practitioners to network, benchmark, and learn from on another.

The event I attended, hosted by Siemens Healthcare, offered several interesting presentations, including one on the major drivers of sustainability action. One of the presenters mentioned that California and Europe were driving companies to adopt increasingly stringent requirements on their direct and indirect operations. This was not an entirely unexpected observation, as Europe and California have consistently led the United States in their approach to environmental regulation.

But then a member of the audience raised his hand and said that this status quo has changed. Now, it's Wal-Mart, not federal or state regulators that are driving corporate environmental performance.  The environmental manager noted that Wal-Mart’s recently announced Sustainability Index and other corporate goals are trickling down to the supplier level (a big chunk of the US economy) and driving corporate environmental actions more than anything else.

If this thinking is true, it represents a monumental step-change in the way that companies think about environmental regulation and improvements in environmental performance over time.  What do you think?  Is Wal-Mart a bigger driver for environmental innovation than EPA?

Sign up to follow the Innovation Exchange blog via email or RSS.