larly motivated to buy green. But their kids are, and Wal-Mart is listening. Wal-Mart is betting that the most planet-friendly retailer will win the future.   For Businesses: 6. Sustainability starts at the top. Big businesses have often foisted off sus- tainability to a mid-level executive, which has ended up being the kiss of death and the path to ‘greenwash.’ CEOs must make sustainability their priority – and make their direct reports do the same. No one else can.   7. Everything is fair game. Starting at the top is critical, but for a top- down mandate to succeed, it must ‘infect’ thinking throughout a business. It can’t be the job of a separate team, but rather, the consideration of every department and line worker, from buyers to truck drivers to warehouse foremen. Wal-Mart’s experience shows that’s where many of the insights on how to be more efficient, cleaner and greener will be found.   8. It’s a race to the top, not the bottom. Old thinking about the environment per- ceives it as a costly regulatory compliance act, keeping the company at the point where emissions, waste, toxics and sprawl are legal – a race to the bottom. New thinking about the environment perceives it as an opportunity to use sustainability for competitive advantage, a tool to make a business leaner, cleaner, and less wasteful, beyond anything that regulations require – a race to the top.   9. Burst the bubble and embrace the critics. Secretive, insular Wal-Mart decided to throw open its doors to critics, inviting environmentalists and activists inside the infamous ‘Bentonville Bubble’ to advise the retailer on everything from sustainable fish- eries to compact fluorescent light bulbs. Environmental groups had the expertise and the data on sustainability for years, but couldn’t get anyone in the big business world to listen; when Wal-Mart opened up, organizations like the Environment Defense Fund, Conservation International and the Natural Resources Defense Council were happy to lend their expertise for free.   10. Don’t wait for the market – lead it. By the time there’s big consumer demand for sustainability, it will too late to start (think iPad versus all the me-too com- petitors that came a year later). Wal-Mart decided to get out in front of consumer demand on sustainability and found that it served the bottom line anyway – it pays to be green. But today’s sustainability efforts mean the company will be ready when consumer demand does catch up. If Wal- Mart is right about the coming Generation Green, the biggest business risk now isn’t acting to become more sustainable; the risk is failing to act.   Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes is the author of 11 non-fiction books. His latest is Force of Nature: The Unlikely Story of Wal-Mart’s Green Revolution. For more on Edward Humes, visit: http://www.edwardhumes.com/ Anti-Idle Solutions Using idle reduction technologies does much more than help fleets comply with stricter emissions and anti-idling regulations. It also reduces costs for fuel and vehicle maintenance, and can help retain drivers by providing a more comfortable work environment. Reducing idling gives the transportation sector, and in particular North America’s trucking companies, a rare opportunity to create an even rarer win-win situation – a win for your fleet’s bottom line, a win from increased energy efficiency, and a win for the environment, something that benefits us all. At Tereck Diesel Ltd we are proud of our dealer associations with the manufactures we represent. Our alliance with them was by no means our only options, but in fact, our preferred options. We will only represent manufactures who we consider amongst the best in industry. After all, our business success depends on our ability to deliver quality product and unparalleled after-sales support. This is our promise to our customers. Tereck Diesel Ltd. 1655 Dugald Road Winnipeg, Manitoba R2J 0H3 Phone: 204-654-9646 Toll Free: 1-877-545-3884 Email: info@tereckdiesel.com Website: tereckdiesel.com REturn to Table of contents At Tereck Diesel Ltd we supply, support, and recommend the following products: • Espar Heating Systems – Air & Hydronic Diesel Fired Heaters • Carrier ComfortPro – Diesel Auxillary Power Units • CECC’s Patriot – Diesel Auxillary Power Unit • Glacier Bay’s ClimaCab – the all electric Auxillary Power Unit Not one option is right for everyone’s needs. Let us help you with a need assessment and the selection that’s right for you or your fleet. Summer 2011 37