What I Learned Today

Road Trip, indeed

“Car dealers, parts makers, union leaders and others hoping to convince lawmakers that the industry is an indispensable piece of the economy are planning a caravan to Washington in early December.” (via NYT)

“It started with a small group of 50 or 100 vehicles driving from Detroit to D.C. But by Monday morning there were thousands of e-mails, phone calls and even handwritten notes dropped off at the office supporting the effort or asking to participate. It just kept growing.” (via DetNews)

Because of the outpouring of support, they’re making it a virtual march. Tune into TheEngineofDemocracy.com, on Monday, December 1, where supporters can share their stories about how the auto industry impacts their lives.

I still hope they road trip it.

Road Trip

“The CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler may have told Congress that they will likely go out of business without a bailout yet that has not stopped them from traveling in style, not even First Class is good enough.” via ABCnews

“It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high-hat and tuxedo.” Rep. Gary L. Ackerman of New York via NPR

Totally despicable, right? The CEOs of the Big Three US Automakers have the gall to fly to Washington in their private jets and ask for a $25 billion bailout. No wonder Pelosi sent them home!

But, in fact, it is not necessarily their choice to fly in style. The GM board, like many corporate boards, requires its top executives to fly on private planes for security reasons. Per the president of the National Business Aviation Association, about 11,000 U.S. companies operate jets or powerful prop planes, and more use smaller planes.

In response to the uproar, GM announced the elimination of two of its five corporate jets, though the top executives still plan to use the private jets. And Ford “explored” the sale of its private jets. They should consider NPR’s solution for December 8:

…if they really wanted to touch the purse strings of Congress and the public, they should have driven from Detroit to Washington in a hybrid sub-compact — the three of them taking shifts at the wheel during a nine-hour drive through Toledo, Akron and Pittsburgh, stopping to get out and stretch at all-night doughnut shops, calling in to all-night talk radio shows, as reporters sent iPhone snapshots from along the road. Then the CEOs could step out of their car just in front of the U.S. Capitol, stretch their legs, rub their all-night beard, and say, “Door to door, nine hours, not bad, and on one tank of gas. How ‘bout that!”

Oh, wait. U.S. car companies don’t make a hybrid sub-compact, do they?

Imagine

If you’ve read or heard much about Wal-Mart, you likely know the magnitude of its power. If it were an independent country, it would have the 23rd largest economy in the world - at that size, Wal-Mart can certainly influence some major change. A great example of this is the deodorant story from the early 90s.

Prior to the early 90s, deodorant came boxed. The plastic deodorant stick was packaged in a paperboard box. In The Wal-Mart Effect, Charles Fishman describes how in the early 1990s, Wal-Mart decided the box was a waste. It wasted cardboard, took up shelf space, increased shipping expenses, and was unnecessary since the plastic deodorant package was more durable than the box. So Wal-Mart asked their suppliers to eliminate the box. Of course, they did. And it benefited everyone - the box turned out to cost about 5 cents, which Wal-Mart split with its suppliers - the deodorant makers got a couple cents, and a couple cents of savings were passed on the Wal-Mart customers. Everyone, except for the box makers, that is.

According to the Sr VP of Sustainability in a talk I attended this weekend, the Wal-Mart Sustainability Team has met with Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, a few times this year. During these meetings, Yvon had a few requests of Wal-Mart. They included

1. Wal-Mart should make suppliers change the ingredients in their products, including eliminating high-fructose corn syrup. He told them “If you told your suppliers to clean up their act, you could change the world.” He states, “They could do that to Kraft…Wal-Mart is 25 percent of Kraft’s business. You could change the world if you told Kraft, ‘We don’t want any more high-fructose corn syrup in our products’.”

2. Wal-Mart should make suppliers eliminate the “on” light on appliances. There’s no reason to have a green light that shows your tv is “on” when you are watching it. Yvon did research to find that if Wal-Mart required this, it would save many power plants worth of energy.

Imagine.

(Though they apparently have no plans to respond to these requests, Wal-Mart did just have a Sustainability Summit in Beijing in October during which it revealed a mandate for a sustainable supply chain from its suppliers in China.)