This time, though, the cheerleading was coming from an unlikely source: Al Gore.

Wal-Mart had invited America's most famous environmentalist to show his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." "Having the former Democratic Vice President was a shock" to some people at the company, chief executive Lee Scott told the crowd. "At least based on a couple of my e-mails."

But as the credits rolled, Gore strutted onto the stage to a standing ovation. Dressed in a blue suit and cowboy boots, he joked with the audience, answered questions in his best Southern drawl, and coyly denied that he had any plans to run for President again. (This wasn't exactly his base: He took just 32% of the vote in Benton County in 2000.)

Before heading off to dinner with Wal-Mart chairman Rob Walton and Scott, Gore delivered a parting thought: As Wal-Mart embarks on a far-reaching plan to adopt business practices that are better for the environment, he said, the world will learn that "there need not be any conflict between the environment and the economy."

Wal-Mart, you see, has decided to help save the earth.

 full story:  http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/08/07/8382593/index.htm