Reuters reports that Wal-Mart executives have announced that in response to persistent criticisms about many of its business practices, Wal-Mart will implement several changes that will involve using more environmentally-friendly practices and improving access to healthcare for its employees:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., under attack from critics including labor groups and environmentalists, has vowed to cut energy usage, reduce waste and offer lower-priced health care to employees . . . and even called on Congress to raise the national minimum wage from the current $5.15 an hour.

Some of Wal-Mart’s most vocal critics dismissed the efforts as little more than a charm offensive, but others applauded the retailer for taking at least some small steps to change the way it does business. . . . Wal-Mart has acknowledged that it has an image problem, and has stepped up its marketing efforts in the hope of convincing critics that it treats employees fairly and gives back to the community.

[Wal-Mart CEO Lee] Scott said the retailer spent a year meeting with critics, and the latest changes were partly in response to concerns raised in those discussions. The retailer . . . also has to convince investors that it is changing for the better as lawsuits alleging worker mistreatment pile up.

Now, let us contrast these publicly-announced “reforms” with an internal Wal-Mart memo, as reported by the New York Times, that suggests new ways to reduce costs associated with providing employees with benefits:

Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart. In the memorandum, M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits.

The memo voices concern that workers with seven years’ seniority earn more than workers with one year’s seniority, but are no more productive. [The memo also] proposed that employees pay more for their spouses’ health insurance. She called for cutting 401(k) contributions to 3 percent of wages from 4 percent and cutting company-paid life insurance policies to $12,000 from the current level, equal to an employee’s annual earnings.

It’s nice to know that Wal-Mart is apparently acting like it always has been -- trying to portray itself one way in public but in private, engaging in the same old exploitative and manipulative business practices that screw over their employees.

Like anything else, if you’re gonna talk the talk, you’d better also walk the walk. Using another cliche, actions speak louder than words. Wal-Mart does indeed have the resources to turn the company into an environmentally-friendly and worker-friendly business. It’s just a matter of will it actually do so.