Wal-Mart will vet its sustainability, mapping progress

FAYETTEVILLE — WalMart’s forthcoming Global Sustainability Milestone Meeting, the second of the year, will inform stakeholders, employees and others about what the world’s largest retailer is doing to meet its long-term sustainability goals. The meeting Thursday will be attended by the company’s senior management, buyers and suppliers in the auditorium at WalMart’s home office in Bentonville. The general public will not be admitted but can view a webcast of it.

The main topic will be an update on Wal-Mart’s sustainability index — a tool by which the company measures and drives the sustainability of products

sold in stores — considered by some to be the new retail standard for the 21st century. Discussion will also center on other initiatives that will have the greatest impact in improving the retailer’s global supply chain: recycling, sustainable chemistry, energy efficiency and more.

The company’s ultimate goals are to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy, create zero waste and sell products that sustain people and the environment.

“It’s still relatively new that we’ve rolled this out to our suppliers and that we’re really making this part of our business practice, to track and measure based on the index,” said Chris Schraeder, senior manager of sustainability communications for Wal-Mart.

The meeting, he said, is “primarily a business update intended to share our progress and successes and provide transparency into our sustainability work.”

Wal-Mart’s sustainability index was developed and integrated with the help of The Sustainability Consortium (TSC), a firstof-its-kind collaboration of sustainability experts. The consortium is based at the University of Arkansas and Arizona State University at Phoenix, and provides the research, measurement and reporting systems necessary to understand the products Wal-Mart sells and engage suppliers around sustainability.

The consortium also recently partnered with Wageningen University in the Netherlands and Nanjing University in Beijing, said Kelly Unger, member manager of the UA’s consortium office.

“Our vision for the index was, and continues to be, to provide tools for merchants and customers to improve the sustainability of the products our customers love; integrate sustainability into our core business — buying and selling merchandise; reduce cost, improve product quality and create a more resilient, efficient supply chain; and strengthen customers’ trust in us and the brands we carry,” the company says on its website. The majority of the company’s work toward reaching its goals has been placed on the backs of the suppliers and the Wal-Mart buyers who work with them.

Wal-Mart was a founding member of The Sustainability Consortium and is active in most of the consortium’s working groups, which include partners in categories such as clothing, footware and textiles; electronics; and food, beverage and agriculture, said Elizabeth Kessler, marketing coordinator for the consortium in Phoenix.

“Wal-Mart is an integral part of what we have going on in China and our operations there,” Kessler said. Wal-Mart entered the Chinese market and opened its first Supercenter and Sam’s Club in Shenzhen in 1996. As of late February, WalMart operated more than 390 stores in more than 150 cities in 21 provinces, autonomous regions and four municipalities, and had created approximately 100,000 jobs across the country.

Kessler said Wal-Mart’s Global Sustainability Milestone Meeting is important to the consortium because it highlights Wal-Mart’s interaction with The Sustainability Consortium and how its work with the consortium changes its processes to become more sustainable.