Wal-Mart Stores Going Green

Retail giant Wal-Mart has launched an ambitious blueprint to go green, with plans to cut energy use of many of its products by 25%, and may even begin to sell hybrid cars and provide sustainable energy to charge them, reports the New York Times. Wal-Mart has already sold 145 million energy-reduction light bulbs, saving electricity equivalent to the amount created by three coal-fired power plants, according to executives.

 Wal-Mart “does not wait for someone else to solve problems," the company's chief executive boasted. Announcement of the mammoth retailer's plans has implications beyond Wal-Mart. “When Wal-Mart asks, suppliers jump,” said a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “There are positive ripple effects throughout the supply chain.” (More Walmart stories.)