As much as many of us snub WalMart and consider these efforts as superficial, it may take a large corporation to get things started, culturally speaking. We have to remember that much of the US is not San Francisco. Although they are taking their baby steps towards fair trade and other “green” movements, those efforts, however small, make a huge impact on the communities that they effect at home and abroad. At minimum, even at say, a token level, they bring some kind of awareness to those who live across the country and frequent places like WalMart. It will be interesting to see what results from the index.

Sarah Miller