Feedback

Savior or Sellout?

I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart in more than 10 years because of the environmental and business practices that it employs. If Werbach can actually assist in and promote change, then Wal-Mart can have a very dramatic effect on our environment in the future. I applaud his forward thinking. I also think he is very audacious to take on such a large corporation that could make a monumental impact on absolutely everything--the environment, business, economy, consumers. The potential impact is limitless.

Jessica Smith
Hartford, Connecticut

Werbach's approach may actually make "think green" become more of a mainstream habit, comparable to Al Gore's latest media success. Adam is bringing "radical green" closer to the base by making it more approachable and realistic. It's green for the people and not green for the environmentalists. That's how you get things done on a great scale. More power to you, Adam!

Miguel Oliveira
Los Angeles, California

I admire Werbach's courage to take risks for his cause. However, it is impossible to believe that Wal-Mart has any motive to embrace sustainability other than money. Energy-efficient stores cost less to operate. Asking employees to create their own sustainability programs is really a way to improve employee retention and health, and thus reduce costs associated with training, health care, and absenteeism. And perhaps hold off unionization efforts for a bit longer. Reduced packaging? Relates to less shelf space per product and probably lower transportation costs. Remember when Wal-Mart waved the "Made in the U.S.A." marketing banner? Now it waves the sustainability banner for the same reasons: more sales and reduced costs.

Richard Spingler
Florence, Kentucky

I think it takes enormous courage to give up the biggest-yapping-dog-in-the-pen glory and actually come out and try to fix things in a totally unexpected way that could potentially change the world. People who remain in permanent opposition can become quite tiresome and ineffective…. It would be neat to see what would happen if more people were invited to join those that they oppose and asked to come in and help. I hope Werbach will succeed!

Tuija Seipell
Vancouver, British Columbia

Hear This!

When Grameen Telecom launched Village Phone a decade ago ("Unplanned Obsolescence," September), experts said it would reach saturation after five years and 50,000 operators. The fact that it is still going after 10 years and more than 290,000 operators is a testament to the capacity of poor women and men to operate technology-based microfranchises. And while the telecommunications market in Bangladesh has clearly changed in the past decade, we believe the fundamental business model and the need it serves are still far from obsolete. Around the world, there are still 2.6 billion people living on less than $2 a day, who cannot afford to purchase their own personal phones; for them, affordable, accessible telephone services are vital. Grameen Foundation's experience in replicating this model in Uganda and Rwanda (Grameen Telecom and GrameenPhone focus solely on Bangladesh) has demonstrated the wide applicability of the fundamentals of the Village Phone model and how it can be a sustainable business and operational model. All products have life cycles, and the recent decline in Village Phone--operator incomes from providing public-access telecommunications services was not unexpected. However, this does not discount the significant achievements of Grameen Telecom's work over the past decade, nor the potential of its application in other countries.

David Keogh
Manager, Village Technology

If GrameenPhone had not teamed with Grameen Bank to distribute phones to villages and agreed to sell minutes in bulk at a huge discount to phone ladies, it never would have built out a national network. Which means Bangladesh today might have a largely urban-centric phone system, rather than the countrywide system it enjoys.

The Western media have built Nobel laureates Grameen Bank and Muhammad Yunus into icons, and in typical fashion now look to knock them off their lofty perch. There is no doubt some reason to do so, although it is a mistake to treat GrameenPhone and Grameen Bank as the same entity when they have radically different agendas.

Nicholas P. Sullivan
South Dartmouth, Massachusetts