Walmart Releases Global Responsibility Report; Launches Project Gigaton to Reduce Emissions

Walmart released its 10th annual Global Responsibility Report, which looks back at the company’s progress during fiscal year 2017 in advancing the key areas of opportunity, sustainability and local communities. The report also looks ahead at the retailer’s role in helping rewire whole social and environmental systems as it strives toward a new era of trust and transparency.  

“At Walmart, we aim to use our strengths and collaborate with others to transform the systems we all rely on,” Kathleen McLaughlin, chief sustainability officer and president of the Walmart Foundation, said in a statement. “We believe that the value-maximizing strategy is the one that creates shared value for customers, business and society.”

Earlier this week, Walmart launched a sustainability platform inviting suppliers to join Walmart in committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from their operations and supply chains. Dubbed Project Gigaton, this initiative will provide an emissions reduction toolkit to a broad network of suppliers seeking to eliminate one gigaton of emissions, focusing on areas such as manufacturing, materials and use of products by 2030. That’s the equivalent to taking more than 211 million passenger vehicles off of U.S. roads and highways for a year.

Walmart says it is the first retailer with a verified science-based target emissions-reduction plan. The company aims to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 18 percent by 2025. The retailer will also work to reduce CO2e, or carbon dioxide equivalent, emissions from upstream and downstream Scope 3 sources by one billion tons (a gigaton) between 2015 and 2030.

“We are proud of the improvements we’ve made in reducing our own emissions, but we aim to do more. That’s why we’re working with our suppliers and others on Project Gigaton,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

Walmart has identified energy, agriculture, waste, packaging, deforestation, and product use and design as the goal areas in which to focus their Scope 3 climate efforts. Participating suppliers are encouraged to focus their commitment in one or more of these goal areas.

To help suppliers make commitments to emission reduction, or to establish emission reduction projects, Walmart collaborated with NGOs, like World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), and additional like-minded organizations to create an emissions reduction toolkit. In this toolkit, Walmart highlights the business case for why suppliers should consider signing on to Project Gigaton.

"Supply chains are the new frontier of sustainability. The journey products take from source to shelf will collectively shape our planet’s future," WWF President and CEO Carter Roberts said in a statement. "Project Gigaton is a testament to the transformative impact that leaders of industry can have on our greatest common challenges. As more companies follow in the footsteps of Walmart and their suppliers, we can achieve the critical mass needed to address climate change. Today's commitment represents an important step toward a safer and more prosperous future."

“A challenge like Project Gigaton will catalyze leadership and innovative solutions around the globe,” EDF President Fred Krupp said in a statement. “Forward-looking companies like Walmart, and the suppliers that will join them, know that our economy and our planet can—and must—thrive together. Consumers deserve both, and these businesses are leading the way. EDF looks forward to helping them along this journey.”

“Through the years, we’ve seen that integrating sustainable practices into our operations improves business performance, spurs technological innovation, inspires brand loyalty, and boosts employee engagement,” said Laura Phillips, senior vice president, Sustainability for Walmart. “Our suppliers recognize the opportunity to realize those same benefits in their businesses. By working together on such an ambitious goal, we can accelerate progress within our respective companies and deep in our shared supply chains.”

Several Walmart suppliers have committed existing emissions-reduction projects to Project Gigaton. Colgate-Palmolive Co. committed to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing by 25 percent from 2002 to 2020, with a longer term goal of a 50 percent reduction by 2050. It also committed to reduce its most significant Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, to promote water conservation awareness to 100 percent of its global consumers and reduce emissions associated with consumer behavior by up to 5 percent from 2016 to 2022, and increase the recycled content of our packaging to 50 percent by 2020.

In additional, Campbell’s,  Ocean Spray,  Henkel,  Nestle Waters,  Reckitt Benckiser,  Church & Dwight Co Inc. and  Unilever committed to join the How2Recycle label program.

Unilever, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), General Mills, Kimberly-Clark and Land O’ Lakes also committed new emissions-reduction projects to Project Gigaton.

Notable milestones and progress from Walmart’s 2017 Global Responsibility Report include:

Increasing Economic Opportunity in Retail Supply Chains

Enhancing the Sustainability of Operations and Our Value Chain

 Strengthening Local Communities