It’s not big brother forcing companies to prove their eco-credentials. It’s retail giant, Wal-Mart, which plans to tag every product it sells with a label that tells buyers how green the product really is.

Cost of the green labeling program will be borne not by Wal-Mart, but by its 100,000 suppliers worldwide.

Wal-Mart’s not doing this for altruistic reasons. It thinks it will make money by giving shoppers a way to rate a product’s “greeniness” based on labeling that details how a product protects the environment by reducing:

• packaging materials
• transportation emissions and fuel usage
• energy usage, and
• raw materials.

All these are cost savers which will help Wal-Mart and its customers reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

To Wal-Mart, the green thing is here to stay. “We do not see this as a trend that will fade. Higher consumer expectations are a permanent part of the future,” company president and CEO Mike Duke said in announcing the labeling intiative.

It’s widely expected that Wal-Mart’s green push will reverberate throughout the business world, forcing companies to create or polish their green credentials.

Reason: Wal-Mart suppliers will have to track their GHG emissions. This is the first question suppliers will have to answer this summer as Wal-Mart creates its Sustainability Product Index. The survey asks suppliers 15 questions. Each must be addressed if the supplier hopes to keep products on Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club shelves.

There will be no exceptions. Give Wal-Mart the answers or find a new outlet.

Full details, including the 15 questions all of Wal-Mart suppliers will have to address, are here.

Tags: efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, packaging, Sam's Club, Walmart