Company will focus on four pillars to advance the sustainability of
its biggest product category
BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- (Business Wire)
In front of hundreds of associates, suppliers and nonprofit
organizations at its Global Sustainability Milestone Meeting, Walmart
today announced its commitment to create a more sustainable food system.
The company will reach this goal through four key pillars: improving the
affordability of food for both customers and the environment, increasing
access to food, making healthier eating easier, and improving the safety
and transparency of the food chain.
“The future of food is absolutely critical for both our society and for
our business, which means we have a huge opportunity to make a
difference here,” said Doug McMillon, president and chief executive
officer of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. “We’ve learned on our sustainability
journey that we’re most successful when our initiatives create social
and environmental value and business value at the same time. Food is our
number one category worldwide, and we are going to do even more in our
grocery business in the years ahead. Paving a sustainable future for
food is necessary for society and our business.”
The four pillars outlined in Walmart’s sustainable food system
commitment aim to address major issues and threats facing today’s global
food system, including how to address the food needs of a growing
population while reducing environmental impact; meeting an increasing
consumer demand for greater food transparency; providing more options
for healthier eating; and alleviating global hunger. While Walmart has
already made significant progress across the four pillars, today’s
announcement outlines new steps towards a more sustainable food system:
- Affordable: Continuing to reduce the “true cost” of
food. Working collaboratively with suppliers, Walmart has the
opportunity to lower the “true cost” of food – not only by providing
everyday low costs for customers, but also by decreasing the
environmental impact of agricultural practices. The company has
already made enhancements in the area of sustainable agriculture, and
will advance this work through the launch of its Climate Smart
Agriculture Platform. The Platform is designed to provide
increasing visibility over the next ten years to agricultural yields,
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water usage, while driving
adoption of best practices in sustainable agriculture. Working with
suppliers and others, these efforts will improve environmental
outcomes, as well as the well-being of farmers and consumers.
- Accessible: Fighting hunger by providing for those in
need. Walmart believes that everyone should have access to
affordable, nutritious, sustainably-grown food. That means making it
easy for customers to buy food through the company’s network of
thousands of stores around the world, and increasingly through home
delivery and convenient collection points. Yet for too many, even this
access may be out of reach. Since announcing its “Fighting Hunger
Together” commitment in 2010, Walmart and Sam’s Club facilities have
donated more than 1.58 billion pounds of food, surpassing the initial
goal of 1.1 billion over five years, a year early. In addition,Walmart
and the Walmart Foundation will elevate their commitment to
accessibility by aiming to provide 4 billion healthier meals to
those who need them in the U.S. over the next five years.
- Healthier: Making eating healthy easier. Walmart
is committed to ensuring that eating healthier is easy and affordable.
The company has reduced sodium by 13 percent and sugar levels by 10
percent in Great Value, Marketside and nationally branded products,
and launched its “Great for You” icon to empower consumers to identify
healthier food options on store shelves. Moreover, to help more
consumers to adopt healthier eating habits, starting in 2015,
Walmart and the Walmart Foundation will provide nutrition education to
4 million U.S. households.
- Safe and Transparent: Showing consumers where food
comes from. A transparent food chain fosters improved food safety,
worker safety, and animal welfare. Walmart will work to provide
more information and transparency about the products on its shelves so
customers can see where an item came from, how it was made, and decode
the ingredient label.
As with all of its sustainability initiatives, Walmart will continue to
collaborate with its suppliers to track and report the progress of
creating a truly sustainable food system, and will take additional steps
in the years ahead to advance the affordability, accessibility,
healthier eating, safety and transparency of the food supply system.
“Walmart has made major progress since we set out to achieve our three
ambitious sustainability goals to create zero waste, be powered by 100
percent renewable energy, and sell products that sustain people and the
environment. We believe it’s especially critical to focus our time and
effort on advancing the sustainability of our food products and
practices,” said McMillon. “Grocery is a very personal category – it’s
about what you feed your kids and how you take care of yourself. It’s
about your health and wellbeing. And it all comes down to trust.
Customers have to trust us on food. When we focus on food, we are doing
right by our customers, our communities, and our planet.”
For more details and to watch the replay of Walmart’s Global
Sustainability Milestone Meeting, please visit: http://news.walmart.com/events/global-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, more than 250
million customers and members visit our 11,053 stores under 71 banners
in 27 countries and e-commerce websites in 11 countries. With fiscal
year 2014 sales of over $473 billion, Walmart employs approximately 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 at http://facebook.com/walmart an
on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart.
Contacts:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Kevin Gardner, 800-331-0085
http://news.walmart.com/reporter
Source: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
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