NY Times gives extensive coverage to Wal-Mart’s announced initiative to remove significant amounts of greenhouse gases from its supply chain. (Greenhouse gases? Who’s concerned about them? Didn’t it snow in New York yesterday? Didn’t Al Gore invent Love Story?)

The aim is to remove emissions equivalent to those of 3.8 million cars by 2015.

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Jim Stanway, who oversees Wal-Mart’s supplier initiatives involving energy, said in an interview on Thursday that suppliers would be willing to spend money if “it’s an investment where everybody’s sure it makes the supplier more profitable.”

And while the initiative may be good for the environment, it may also be good for Wal-Mart. Driving costs out of the supply chain could result in savings for Wal-Mart that can be passed along to consumers — enabling the company to uphold its reputation as a destination for rock-bottom prices.

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Also, as Michael T. Duke, Wal-Mart’s president and chief executive, said in a Web cast on Thursday, “We know we need to get ready for a world in which energy will only be more expensive.”

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