Dissecting Wal-Mart's Sustainability Consortium

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Six months after announcing plans to tack a score from a "sustainability index" on products sold in Wal-Mart stores, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Dell, HP, Intel, and Toshiba, along with academic partners Arizona State University and the University of Arkansas, are now working on a Sustainability Consortium. The Consortium hopes to ease the decision-making process for customers hoping to make smart, sustainable purchases, by providing another rating system beyond those provided by organizations like EPEAT, for example. A new post on Treehugger dissects the claims made by the Consortium's players:

So, do more labels and evaluation standards really help eliminate consumer confusion? We think not. Making those that are already established even stronger and more recognizable - specifically EPEAT and Energy Star - is the way to go. This - at least for now - looks more like the electronics industry gearing up to push evaluation standards and information where they want them to go.

Time to pick a side: Is the effort a genuine one for the customer's benefit or a veiled attempt at appeasing and benefiting from the green movement?Photo via syvwlch.