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The world's largest retailer took its boldest leap yet in a quest to green its entire operation with a new plan to rate the sustainability of every product it sells. "We've moved quickly on our goals because of the collaborative ways we've been doing it," says SVP of sustainability Matt Kistler. Tapping its 2 million employees, 100,000 global suppliers, and a consortium of NGOs, scientists, and other businesses, Walmart has grown into the world's greenest retailer.
Goals
October 2005: Then-CEO Lee Scott announces ambitious goals: create zero waste, use only renewable energy, and sell products that sustain the environment.
Packaging
October 2005: Partners with Unilever to introduce superconcentrated liquid laundry soap. The move remakes the industry, saving an estimated 25 million pounds of plastic resin, 140 million gallons of water, and 40 million pounds of cardboard each year.
Greener Lightbulbs
August 2006: Aims to sell 100 million compact fluorescent lightbulbs in 12 months. Despite the higher price tag, it sells 137 million CFLs, which use 75% less energy than incandescents.
Alternative Energy
May 2007: Launches a solar-power pilot, installing solar arrays on top of 20 stores in California, eliminating 6,000 to 8,000 metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions each year. In April 2009, Walmart expands its partnership with BP Solar to 20 more locations, providing 20% to 30% of their total electricity needs.
Store Design
January 2007: Builds its first high-efficiency pilot store in Kansas City, Missouri. The sixth iteration of the store design, in Sacramento, is 30% more efficient than traditional supercenters, thanks to daylight-harvesting systems, LED-lit display cases, evaporative-cooling and radiant-flooring technologies, and detailed energy-management systems.
Reusable Bags
September 2008: Commits to reduce its global plastic shopping-bag waste by 33% over five years (that's 9 billion bags). The next month, it introduces a 50-cent reusable shopping bag in U.S. stores. By the end of the first year, it had used 2.5 billion fewer bags.
Supply Chain
July 2009: Announces its sustainability initiative to track the life cycle of every product it sells, measuring it on water use, greenhouse-gas emissions, and fair labor practices. Walmart is now hosting industry-by-industry meetings to debate what this consumer label will look like. WHEN FOUNDED 1962 HEADQUARTERS CEO Bentonville, AR Michael Duke NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 2,100,000
locations--there are over 2,300 supercenters in the U.S. But nationwide, 70% of hot water used in Walmart and Sam's Club stores is generated using waste heat from refrigeration.
HP Pavilion Packaging
Walmart recently launched a design challenge to its consumer electronics suppliers: create packaging that attracts consumers and reduces environmental impact at the same time. HP won the challenge for its Pavilion dv6929 Entertainment Notebook, a model available exclusively at Walmart and Sam's Club. The innovative packaging replaces Styrofoam and cardboard with a protective messenger bag made entirely out of recycled materials. HP's design cut down on product packaging by 97%, and now the company can ship three laptops to a box. It's a boon for HP and Walmart--the electronics supplier saves cash on packaging, and Walmart gets to say that it is the exclusive retailer of HP's ultra-green laptop.
Biodiesel Truck
Speaking of trucks, Walmart plans to test 15 Class 8 trucks in the Phoenix, Arizona area--they run on reclaimed grease fuel made out of waste brown cooking grease extracted from Walmart stores. So instead of clogging up drains, the grease goes to good use. According to spokesperson Lundberg, the trucks "provide Walmart the opportunity to develop a closed loop solution for the waste cooking grease it generates in its stores and Sams Club locations." That, and the trucks could ultimately increase Walmart's fleet efficiency by up to 2%.
its jewelry to achieve the company's sustainability criteria and standards. Whether those standards are high enough, however, is still in question. Australian mining company Rio Tinto, one of the companies involved in the Love, Earth line, has been blamedfor environmental destruction and crimes against humanity resulting from a military blockade motivated by civilian resistance to one of its mines.
Walmart probably isn't at the top of most people's lists for locally-grown produce, but the company partners with hundreds of growers across the U.S. as part of its "Locally Grown at Walmart" program. It's a project that has saved the company lots of cash. The stores used to source peaches from only a few suppliers, for example. Now Walmart buys over 12 million pounds of peaches from 18 different states--a change that has saved 672,000 food miles and 112,000 gallons of diesel fuel. The total freight and gasoline savings combined equal more than $1.4 million. And that's just for peaches.