RiskMetrics ESG Insight Blog » Another ICCR Early Warning Takes Hold: Wal-Mart to Revise Standards for Suppliers

Another ICCR Early Warning Takes Hold: Wal-Mart to Revise Standards for Suppliers

By: Alan Petrillo | Monday, October 27th, 2008

On October 22, in Beijing, Wal-Mart convened a “global supply chain summit.” The Wall Street Journal reports [subscription required] that the giant retailer is unveiling new environmental and labor standards for its suppliers, and that third-party auditors will help enforce the new rules.

This new commitment was driven, in part, by social investors and corporate social responsibility activists that have long studied and publicized Wal-Mart’s practices. As in the case of predatory lending, the corporate response to activists’ “early warning system” was far from prompt. The Journal notes:

“The Rev. David M. Schilling, director of global accountability at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, an association of faith-based institutional investors that press companies for social change, said his group has been pressuring Wal-Mart to use its leverage to improve labor and environmental conditions in its supply chain since 1994.” [Italics mine]

Rev. Schilling and Sr. Barbara Aires from ICCR are attending Wal-Mart’s summit, reports KLD Senior Research Analyst Elizabeth Horan Edgerly, and we look forward to their impressions of the event.

See this New York Times article for more on Wal-Mart’s new supply chain policies.

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