Biodiversity[TM]: Is Walmart's Environmental Program a Substitute for Government Policy?

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AT A CLIMATE change conference in Vancouver in 1996, I ran into David Suzuki. He wasn't well versed on the issue back then and wanted to know if there were any companies doing something about climate change. I named a few and he suggested that it would be a good idea to give these forward-looking firms a big pat on the back to encourage them to keep on with their good practices. Maybe it would convince others to do the same. Use the carrot, he was saying.

The number of companies doing something about climate change has expanded since that encounter, but not by as much as Suzuki and others would like, and certainly not by as much as is needed. So when I came across the industry-led back-patting work of the Canadian Business and Biodiversity Program (CBBP), I was skeptical. I wondered what impact, if any, it would have on encouraging the sort of fundamental changes needed to protect the environment, including biodiversity.

The CBBP recently released a 92-page report that includes stories of good biodiversity practices of 17 Canadian businesses in nine sectors. …