Eco-Mart?

Wal-Mart is pushing the "sustainable living" concept further- according to the NYT, "...As the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores is on a mission to determine the social and environmental impact of every item it puts on its shelves. And it has recruited scholars, suppliers, and environmental groups to help it create an electronic indexing system to do that.

The idea is to create a universal rating system that scores products based on how environmentally and socially sustainable they are over the course of their lives. Consider it the green equivalent to nutrition labels.

Rather than a retailer or a product supplier’s focusing on only a few sustainability goals — lower emissions or water conservation or waste reduction — the index would help them take a broader view of sustainability by scrutinizing and rating all sorts of environmental and social implications..."

Several questions arise, including the intent of Wal-Mart. Creating a single index for eco-friendliness involves collapsing many variables, and will be the subject of many arguments and papers. At any rate, the focus on sustainability is welcome.