January 02, 2007  Steven Hamburg, director of the Watson Institute’s Global Environment Program, has been advising Wal-Mart on improving its environmental performance – an effort most recently embodied in the giant retailer’s campaign to market lightbulbs that use 75% less electricity.

Hamburg’s role was highlighted today in the New York Times, in a front-page article titled "Power-Sipping Bulbs Get Backing from Wal-Mart." The article describes a key meeting Hamburg had with Wal-Mart executives at which he underscored what a "clear winner" the new bulbs are for consumers and the environment. Hamburg also discussed the bulbs on Minnesota Public Radio and in BusinessWeek.

Earlier, Hamburg was also featured in Fast Company’s September issue, in another article describing the potential of the compact fluorescent lightbulb. The CFL is “a fairly ordinary item,” the magazine said, “that nonetheless cuts to the heart of a half-dozen of the most profound, most urgent problems we face. Energy consumption. Rising gasoline costs and electric bills. Greenhouse-gas emissions. Dependence on coal and foreign oil. Global warming.”

But Americans have not been buying the bulbs, according to the Fast Company article, titled “How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change the World?” This, despite the fact that CFLs cost less over the course of their lifetime than the regular bulbs that Wal-Mart also sells.

Wal-Mart is looking to change this – in part to show how seriously it is pursuing its new positioning as an environmental activist. And the retailer could do just that. “Think how many games Wal-Mart has changed,” Hamburg told Fast Company. “There’s no reason they can’t change this game.”

Hamburg has been working with CFLs since the 1980s and has advised Wal-Mart more generally on its environmental performance in the past. In 1994, he critiqued Wal-Mart’s first environmentally sensitive store and told executives that it was just “green-wash” and that they needed to do better.

Hamburg gave Wal-Mart executives more positive feedback on their work with CFLs. “I said, ‘It’s a very direct return to your consumers, and it has a big positive impact on reducing carbon emissions… Do it.’”

Wal-Mart's goal is to sell 100 million bulbs by 2008, despite such reported obstacles as high up-front costs, asthetic issues, and concerns about how to dispose of them. Sales of CFLs are now rising rapidly at Wal-Mart, according to the New York Times. In August 2006, nearly 4 million were sold by the chain – almost twice the number sold the previous August.

Listen to the Minnesota Public Radio program here.
Read the New York Times article here.
Read the Fast Company article here.
Read the BusinessWeek article here.