Now that's using your noodle

H. Lee Scott, president and CEO of Wal-Mart, spoke yesterday here at the Clinton Global Initiative about his company's efforts to be environmentally friendly:

Well, what we found is we’ve gone down this journey in sustainability, is the first things we’re doing is we are taking waste out of this whole stream of products and things that all of us are using. And they’re not exotic decisions. One I talked to General Mills about is that they straightened the noodles on the Hamburger Helper, and more noodles go into the box, and the boxes are now smaller. And thousands of tons of waste are eliminated, truck loads of movement are eliminated, fuel is eliminated.

The Atlantic's Matt Yglesias, who is here at CGI as well, was pretty critical yesterday of Scott:

Right now, for example, we have Al Gore, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Archbiship Desmond Tutu, Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott, Filipino president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and World Bank chief Robert Zoellick up on a podium to discuss "the need for global action." Clinton moderates, and leads by asking Karzai to make the case that Afghanistan is a good investment opportunity. I, for one, look forward to WalMart Kandahar. Maybe they could turn their union-busting expertise against the Taliban.

Matt is obviously forgetting the parable of the dentist from Tyler Cowen's book, Discover Your Inner Economist:

One study compared two methods for cleaning up a school. Authorities could (a) lecture students that they should be neat and tidy, or (b) compliment them for being neat and tidy. The lecturing had no effect, but the praise increased litter collection by a factor of three. The students saw a gain from identifying as clean and conscientious people; if anything, scolding usually makes such a self-image more difficult to adopt. [...]

With my current dentist, I pretend to have no fear. At the end of the visit I say what a great job she did. I expect better performance by supporting her self-image as a good dentist and, since she is new in my life, I find high-powered incentives difficult to apply. In any case I do not have access to penalties. But she may get a Christmas gift (even though she is Hindu). 

In that spirit, great job, Wal-Mart! Keep up the good work!