The Green Room

Deepening sustainability in the global supply chain

By Walmart Green Room on October 25, 2012 Leave a comment

At an event in Beijing today, Walmart is further strengthening its commitment to a sustainable global supply chain by announcing new commitments designed to make products made and sold around the globe more sustainable.

The commitments shared in Beijing deepen and expand the work under way with the Sustainability Index, a reporting system and measurement tool developed by The Sustainability Consortium (TSC), an independent research organization. In categories where the Index is available, we’ve now committed, by the end of 2017, to buy 70 percent of the goods we sell in U.S. stores and in U.S. Sam’s Clubs from suppliers who use the Index. In April, we announced that key buyers in Walmart U.S, and Sam’s Clubs will have specific sustainability objectives added to their annual evaluations. Now, key global sourcing merchants will have similar objectives. We also extended our relationship with TSC, granting $2 million from the Walmart Foundation to fund TSC’s launch in China.

Today, our merchandise buyers have been trained on how to use the Index across 100 categories and have already engaged more than 500 suppliers. By the end of the year, buyers in an additional 100 categories will learn how to use the Index to evaluate the sustainability of products.

As Walmart President and CEO Mike Duke said, “It’s Walmart’s goal to be a model retailer in China and around the world.  This is especially true when it comes to being a more socially and environmentally responsible company.”

These are just a few of the highlights shared at today’s meeting, in which we were honored to have Gary Locke, U.S. Ambassador of China; Xie Zhenghua, Vice Minister of the National Reform and Development Commission; and Kara Hurst, Executive Director of The Sustainability Consortium, join us.

This journey started in earnest four years ago, when Walmart hosted a similar meeting in China with local government officials, nongovernmental organizations, academics, suppliers and Walmart associates to announce ambitious goals to make its China and global operations more sustainable.

For Duke’s remarks, the press release and a fact sheet, you can go to our corporate website. A video replay will be available soon so check back here for more.