Environment
Environmental sustainability has become an essential ingredient to doing business responsibly and successfully. As the world’s largest retailer, our actions have the potential to save our customers money and help ensure a better world for generations to come. At the same time, they set the stage for a more financially stable and responsible Walmart. With that in mind, our decisions in this area are tied to three specific aspirational goals:
- Energy: Be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy
- Waste: Create zero waste
- Products: Sell products that sustain people and the environment
Integrating the value chain
Sustainability 360 is a comprehensive view of our business that integrates the ideas, actions and enthusiasm of more than 100,000 suppliers, 2.2 million associates and hundreds of millions of customers around the world in our efforts. Sustainability 360 lives in every corner of our business.
It takes every one of us, working together every day, to become the most sustainable company possible, from both a business and environmental perspective. For example, we work directly with our suppliers to address product and packaging challenges. Planning processes involve our buyers and suppliers at the same table, and we continually engage with industry experts to identify and develop breakthroughs in logistics and transportation. Environmental sustainability is written into the job descriptions of our own associates and weighs into annual performance reviews.
These are a few specific examples of Sustainability 360 in action around the world:
- We’ve rolled out the Sustainability Index to more than 700 categories across our business. Hundreds of buyers from Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club and several international markets are now using this tool to work with their suppliers on improving product sustainability.
- Since 2011, Walmart Brazil has been working on the social initiative Walmart Institute Caravan, bringing together more than 900 leaders (60 percent women) and representatives from 500 nongovernmental organizations in eight Brazilian states. They discussed how to mobilize communities to actively take part in their issues and how Walmart stores in every community could participate.
- In 2010, the Walmart Canada Green Business Summit spawned ShareGreen.ca, a website dedicated to sharing case studies of sustainability-minded business practices that have successfully demonstrated return on investment. The resource remains available to all companies aiming to incorporate sustainability into their business.
Sustainability 360 guides our decisions based on improving the environment, supply chain and communities everywhere we operate and source.
