Companies keen on green when profits benefit early

Companies are taking a selective approach to reducing their impact on the environment, moving slowly on bigger investments while embracing strategies like energy efficiency and waste reduction that quickly lift profits. As concerns over global warming grow, the number of firms announcing plans to become "greener" have proliferated, with previous laggards now racing to catch up. Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer and once a scourge of environmentalists, has embraced some of the most ambitious targets to use renewable energy and cut waste, while Exxon Mobil, the world's largest non-government controlled oil company and long a skeptic of renewable energy, this month unveiled plans to develop biofuel from algae. Environment analysts, however, see little benefit so far. "For all that's going on, we're not yet really moving the needle on our most significant environmental problems," said Joel Makower, executive editor of Greenbiz.com, which produces the benchmark "State of Green Business" report each year. This has led to accusations of a "greenwash," with environmentalists claiming firms are using big public relations campaigns to mask a lack of commitment to change.