Company celebrates 10 years of progress towards aspirational
sustainability goals at Milestone Meeting, announces new commitment to
preserve wildlife habitat
BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- (Business Wire)
In front of an audience of associates, suppliers and nonprofit
organizations at its Global Sustainability Milestone Meeting, Walmart
today announced the completion of commitments to reduce 20 million
metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its global supply
chain, double fleet efficiency, and expanded an existing commitment to
preserve wildlife habitat. The company also highlighted major progress
around a pledge
to develop a sustainable food system: the completion of several food and
nutrition commitments and receipt of an award from Partnership
for a Healthier America for its work to open stores in food deserts.
“Today we celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the launch of our
sustainability agenda,” said Doug McMillon, president and chief
executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. “We’re proud to recognize the
progress we continue to make every day, and we’re excited about what we
hope to accomplish in the next ten years and beyond. Our company has
made major strides since we embarked on this journey, and our focus for
the next decade will remain the same: doing the right thing for our
customers, our communities, people working in the supply chain and the
planet. Our approach to global responsibility not only makes sense for
the environment, but it’s also good for our customers, and our business.”
A decade ago, Walmart’s then-CEO Lee Scott set forth three aspirational
goals outlining the company’s support for environment and people
worldwide:
1. To be supplied by 100% renewable energy;
2. Create
zero waste;
3. Sell products that sustain people and the
environment.
To ensure progress toward these goals, Walmart continually establishes
ambitious commitments with definitive timelines, while collaborating
with suppliers, nonprofits, industry experts and governments. Walmart
today shared progress against several of these commitments:
- Eliminated 20 million metric tons of GHG emissions from its global
supply chain. In 2010, Walmart announced its goal to eliminate
20 million metric tons of GHG emissions from its global supply
chain by the end of 2015. Today, the company announced that it has
exceeded this commitment early by eliminating 28.2 million metric tons
to date, which is the equivalent of taking more than 5.9 million cars
off the road for an entire year. Collaborating with EDF, Walmart has
achieved this goal by implementing various innovative measures across
both its global operations and those of suppliers, including enhanced
energy efficiency, the execution of numerous renewable energy projects
and collaborating with suppliers on the Sustainability Index to track
progress towards reducing overall carbon footprint.
- Doubled fleet efficiency. In 2005, Walmart committed
to doubling the efficiency of its fleet by the end of 2015. Today,
the company shared that it has achieved this momentous goal by working
with its associates to establish innovative solutions for loading,
routing and driving techniques, as well as collaborating with tractor
and trailer manufacturers on new technologies. With these new
efficiencies, in this fiscal year alone, the company expects to save
nearly $1 billion compared to a 2005 baseline, and avoid emissions of
almost 650,000 metric tons of CO2. This contributes to a cleaner
environment and lower prices for customers.
- Permanently preserved acres of wildlife habitat. Today Walmart
announced it is renewing its conservation efforts by committing $35
million over the next ten years to Acres for America. Since 2005,
Walmart, in collaboration with the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation, has helped preserve and restore more than 1 million acres
of wildlife habitat through 61 projects in 33 states, the District of
Columbia and Puerto Rico through the Acres for America program. This
commitment aims to permanently conserve at least one acre of priority
wildlife habitat for every developed acre of the company’s current and
future footprint, and has already dramatically exceeded the original
commitment of 100,000 acres.
- Advanced the sustainability of the company’s biggest product
category. In keeping with the goal of selling products that
sustain people and the environment, Walmart has committed
to create a more sustainable food system. This commitment focused on
four key pillars: improving food affordability; increasing access to
food; making healthier eating easier; and improving safety and
transparency in the supply chain. Today, Walmart announced the
completion of several key food commitments under these pillars:
- Affordability: Beginning in 2011, Walmart committed to
helping customers save on healthy food, including $1 billion in
annual savings on fresh produce. The company has exceeded this
commitment year over year, totaling over $4.69 billion in customer
savings to date.
- Accessibility: In July, 2011, Walmart committed to opening
up to 300 stores serving USDA-designated food deserts. By the end
of January 2015, Walmart had exceeded this goal, a year earlier
than planned, by opening 375 stores. Today Walmart is being
recognized for those efforts as a recipient of the Partnership for
a Healthier America Award.
- Health and Transparency: As part of its focus on making
healthy eating easier, Walmart committed in 2011 to reduce sodium
by 25 percent, added sugars by 10 percent and to eliminate
industrially produced transfats in private label and national
brand packaged foods sold in the company’s stores. So far, Walmart
has reduced sodium in these products by more than 16 percent,
reduced added sugars by over 10 percent and ensured that fewer
than 6 percent of contain partially hydrogenated oils. Walmart
also created a Great For You front-of-pack seal, which is now on
more than 30 percent of the company’s private label products, to
help customers easily identify more nutritious choices.
“While our journey is far from over, it’s clear that we are on the right
path. Even as Walmart grows, we are continuing to leverage our scale and
enhancing our supply chain for the good of people and the planet,” said
Kathleen McLaughlin, chief sustainability officer for Walmart. “The
progress we have achieved would not be possible without the passion and
the hard work of associates across the company, as well as the
partnership of our suppliers and the NGOs who have helped us drive our
work forward.”
For more details and to watch the replay of Walmart’s Global
Sustainability Milestone Meeting, please visit: http://news.walmart.com/events/fall-sustainability-milestone-meeting.
About Walmart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save
money and live better - anytime and anywhere - in retail stores, online,
and through their mobile devices. Each week, nearly 260 million
customers and members visit our 11,554 stores under 72 banners in 28
countries and e-commerce websites in 11 countries. With fiscal year 2015
revenue of $485.7 billion, Walmart employs approximately 2.2 million
associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in
sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity.
Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com
on Facebook athttp://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart.
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Contacts:
Walmart Media Relations
Kevin Gardner, 1-800-331-0085
http://news.walmart.com/reporter
Source: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
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