I admit I have never been a fan of Walmart, for many reasons, but their sustainability initiatives have been occasionally admirable, although more often than not greenwash—check out this series by Stacy Mitchell that looks at their green initiatives a bit more rigorously. Last week, Walmart launched The Green Room, their own sustainability blog designed to “create a more sustainable world to help people live better.” The idea was to start  conversation about what the company can do—at least in theory—to further that goal. The conversation kicked into gear with New York Times’ Dot-Earth blogger Andrew Revkin asking, “Can a company selling consumption so hard also sell sustainability?” TreeHugger adds, “Should Walmart even exist; can its business model be ever made compatible with a growing human population and decreasing resources?” The responses: “We can use our size and scale to lead change on a global scale.... People will always need food, clothing and other necessities, but if we can provide healthier, more sustainable options at prices everyone can afford, then we should. We must....We are rolling out changes all across our company, and eliminating products and processes that are not sustainable. And we want to do that in partnership with others, including our critics.... Hold us accountable, talk with us and please, let’s continue this work and conversation.” That is the question, isn’t it: how much can a company do to be sustainable when that company’s very existence is unsustainable? And is a corporate blog the most proactive solution? I don’t know. Maybe it’s a good first step, maybe it’s just a case of “talk is cheap.” But my New Year’s resolution is to be less cynical, so I’ve added The Green Room to the Going Green blogroll and we’ll see how things progress. I’m still not shopping there, though.