Bloggers view Whole Foods, Home Depot as most sustainable retailers

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. Based on analysis of 40 million blog posts collected during the past six months, Whole Foods received the highest levels of volume and positive mentions regarding environmental sustainability among retail brands, according to the recently released J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Environmental Sustainability Report.

Home Depot received the second highest percentage of positive mentions following Whole Foods. Home Depot, along with Amazon and Target, fall within in the contender category. Wal-Mart, which initiated the big move in the retail space with a commitment to "go green", generated the second-highest amount of total volume of mentions, but had lower-than-average positive sentiment, placing the brand in the emerging quadrant. However, when viewed against the total discussion of Wal-Mart in general, sustainability discussions represented just 2% of its total volume of blog discussions.

"Although Whole Foods surpassed other retail brands in terms of the volume of positive mentions it received from bloggers, each of the eight retailers included in the report received similarly high proportions of positive or neutral mentions in sustainability discussions taking place in the blogosphere," said Janet Eden-Harris, vp of the Web Intelligence Division at J.D. Power and Associates. "The good news for retailers is that they are being recognized by consumers for their environmentally friendly actions."

Among other major retail brands, Safeway and Costco generated more than 1% of total sustainability discussions, but had lower-than-average volume and a lower-than-average proportion of positive sentiment when compared to other brands in the industry, placing them in the challenged quadrant. No other retailer was discussed in significant volume relative to sustainability.