Wal-Mart: Impossible to be green

Stacy Mitchell from the Institute of Local Self-Reliance argues that there is no-way that Wal-Mart can be green - it's as basic as its fundamental business model:

In January alone, Wal-Mart opened 70 U.S. stores. At current growth rates, by 2015 Wal-Mart will have enlarged its domestic footprint by 20,000 acres, turning CO2-absorbing fields and forests into stores and parking lots. Big-box stores make incredibly inefficient use of land. While 200,000 square feet of retail spread over several two-story downtown buildings with shared parking takes up about four acres, a single-story Superstore of this size, with its standard 1,000 parking spaces, consumes nearly 20 acres.

Regardless of their ability to cap carbon emissions, big-box stores still eat up way more land than other retail models.