From The New York Times this morning…it looks like Wal-Mart is finally starting to use some of its muscle with retailers and suppliers around the world for something other than improving their bottom line. There is an initiative in the company to push highly efficient flourscent bulbs into at least 100 million homes. And its ambitions extend even further, “spurred by a sweeping commitment from its chief executive, H. Lee Scott Jr., to reduce energy use across the country.”

Certainly this is part of an effort to extend Wal-Mart's appeal to the more affluent consumers the chain must win over to keep growing in the United States. Regardless of its motives, it is a small step in the right direction, and especially when you consider that if it succeeds in selling 100 million compact fluorescent bulbs a year by 2008, “total sales of the bulbs in the United States would increase by 50 percent, saving Americans $3 billion in electricity costs and avoiding the need to build additional power plants for the equivalent of 450,000 new homes.”

Hopefully 2007 will be the year where corporate America realizes that we can do the right thing for our world and still run a profitable business. Happy New Year to all indeed.