« The Electric Auto Becomes Practical. | Main | 90% of climatologists believe that climate change is caused by humans »

From Greenbiz.com:

The world's largest retailer has set a new goal for shrinking its environmental footprint and is turning to suppliers to help achieve a 20-million-tonne cut in greenhouse gas emissions from the lifecycle and supply chain of Walmart products by 2015.

Even the Environmental Defense Fund agrees, which is remarkable:

"This is real leadership ... Walmart is looking at the whole picture," said Fred Krupp, EDF President, referencing the firm's work to reduce emissions of its fleets and buildings, establish a Sustainability Index and increase standards among suppliers in China and around the globe.

Let's see if this really comes to fruition:

Elizabeth Sturcken, who is the managing director of EDF's Corporate Partnerships program and leads the team working with Walmart, said the company, its suppliers and the various advisory groups collaborating on supply chain emissions are venturing into "uncharted waters." They plan to share their framework for some of the key processes. "We're going to open this up to the world to make sure this is real and accurate," she said.

As usual, the devil is in the details:

With 90 percent of its carbon footprint embedded in its products' supply chain and lifecycle, the company plans to focus first on the sectors that are likely to yield the greatest amount of emissions reductions as well as the greatest amount of cost savings, said Matt Kistler, Walmart's senior vice president for sustainability. The realization of savings that can be achieved is expected to be a chief motivator.

Sectors that are likely to be tapped include apparel, food and products that consume a lot of electricity, Kistler said. He and other Walmart executives also stressed that the company plans to work with those suppliers and provide them technical support in seeking the best ways to achieve reductions.

Walmart has more than 100,000 global suppliers. With its biggest-bang-for-the-buck strategy, the supply chain reduction effort is expected to involve several hundred suppliers, Kistler said.

Read the entire story to get the full impact.

Name (required)
Email
Website
Remember personal info? Yes   No
Comments

home | music | democracy | earth | money | projects | about | contact

Site design by Matthew Fries | © 2003-23 Consilience Productions. All Rights Reserved.
Consilience Productions, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
All contributions are fully tax deductible.