Activist Joins Forces with Wal-Mart to Push Environmental Change

Why preach to the choir when you can bring the wayward into the fold? Because it can make you a pariah among fellow believers, according to Fast Company's September cover story, "Working With the Enemy," a profile of environmental activist Adam Werbach, who teamed up with Wal-Mart. While some think the former president of the Sierra Club and author of "Act Now, Apologize Later" has sold his soul, Werbach believes he's converting the "Behemoth of Bentonville" to the cause.

Writer Danielle Sacks reports that former colleagues have since ostracized Werbach, his small consulting firm has lost clients, and old friends have even stopped speaking to him. He's received threats and never speaks in public without security.

Werbach, 34, an ardent environmentalist since his teen years, founded the 30,000-member Sierra Student Coalition while a student at Brown University and became president of the Sierra Club at the age of 23. During his tenure as president, the average age of a Sierra Club member came down from 47 to 37.

Wal-Mart is working hard to change its environmental image. Many activists believe it's just a PR move -- and that hiring Werbach is part of its strategy -- but Werbach is convinced Wal-Mart is genuinely motivated to make changes that could have a profound effect on the environment. He once called Wal-Mart "a new breed of toxin," but after learning that improving sustainability was factored into the evaluations and bonuses of Wal-Mart's senior managers, Werbach became intrigued. He also loved the idea of reaching Wal-Mart's vast customer base, instead of just the urbanites and college students targeted by most environmental efforts.

Werbach's firm, Act Now, runs one of Wal-Mart's main environmental initiatives, a program targeted at the company's 1.3 million U.S. employees. According to the article, Werbach believes that convincing employees about the importance of sustainability is the first step to converting the consumer masses. The Personal Sustainability Project is simple: Employees are charged with picking something in their lives that is "unsustainable" and coming up with a plan to fix it. It can be something as small as not printing a paper receipt at the ATM, biking to work, or working to preserve a favorite fishing spot. The goal is to teach employees that changing small behaviors is doable and can lead to bigger changes. Too many environmentalists preach about making drastic sacrifices -- and alienate people in the process, according to Werbach. So he sacrificed his reputation to try a different approach.

Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism