Wal-Mart Eyes Vendors In Sustainability Effort

MICHAEL GARRY

NEW YORK — In a series of presentations and moves over the past three weeks, Wal-Mart Stores, Bentonville, Ark., pushed its widely publicized “Sustainability 360” environmental agenda aimed at its suppliers, employees and customers as well as its own operations.

At a meeting at Merrill Lynch's headquarters here last week, Wal-Mart announced a partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), London, to measure the amount of energy used to create products throughout its supply chain. The meeting was held by CDP, a nonprofit group that monitors corporate disclosures related to climate change.

As part of this partnership, Wal-Mart has initiated a pilot with a group of suppliers designed to drive energy efficiency in their procurement, manufacturing and distribution processes. The pilot will focus on seven product categories — DVDs, toothpaste, soap, milk, beer, vacuum cleaners and soda — which were chosen because “they are ordinary products that customers commonly use,” Wal-Mart said in a statement. The suppliers named at the meeting include News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Coca-Cola, vacuum cleaner maker Bissell and Oakhurst Dairy, Portland, Maine.

“This is an important first step toward reaching our goal of removing non-renewable energy from the products Wal-Mart sells,” said John Fleming, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, Wal-Mart Stores Division, speaking at the meeting. “This is an opportunity to spur innovation and efficiency throughout our supply chain that will not only help protect the environment but save people money at the same time.”

Fleming said that Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has started a supply chain analysis of the carbon impact of the production, manufacture and distribution of its DVDs. More than 20 of Fox's suppliers provided detailed information on their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis led to an industry standard for measuring the carbon impact of DVDs, which has the “potential to be applied to other consumer packaged goods as well,” said Fleming.

In another example cited by Fleming, Oakhurst Dairy during the first half of next year will install 96 solar collectors to supply hot water at its plant facility. It will also install a heat recovery system for its milk-case washing machine.

Wal-Mart is also working with its suppliers to reduce the packaging used for products. Packaging “scorecards” used to evaluate suppliers on the sustainability of their packaging became available to suppliers in February. Fleming said that 3,400 of Wal-Mart's 60,000 suppliers are now using the scorecards, entering information on 13,000 products.

“Our goal is to achieve a 5% reduction in overall packaging by 2013,” Fleming said. That would be the equivalent of removing 213,000 trucks from the road, and saving about 324,000 tons of coal and 67 million gallons of diesel fuel.

Also last month, Wal-Mart opened its newest Sam's Club in Fayetteville, Ark., with numerous environmental features. For example, it uses energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) lighting in the freezer cases that generates minimal heat and uses 50% less electricity than traditional fluorescent fixtures. Moreover, motion-sensor detectors manage the lighting on freezers and coolers to conserve energy when no one is present. The club also employs more than 200 skylights and an improved daylight harvesting/skylight system that reduces consumption more than in previous installations.

The club also features two tanks that harvest rainwater from the roof to irrigate landscaping via a drip irrigation system and to provide water needed by the cooling tower serving the refrigeration system.

James McClendon, engineering director, prototype and new format development, Wal-Mart, said that the LED lighting in the Fayetteville store is being used in “500 projects this year.” The motion-sensor detectors keep the lights off “35% of the time,” he noted. Wal-Mart has retrofitted about 2,000 stores to incorporate daylighting systems over the past decade, he said.

Wal-Mart's overall environmental goals, said McClendon, are to reduce greenhouse gases at its existing stores, clubs and warehouses around the world by 20% over the next seven years; open a viable prototype store within the next four years that is 25%-30% more efficient and produces up to 30% fewer emissions than current stores; and share all advances in environmental technology with companies worldwide, including its competitors.