Walmart’s environmental update put suppliers at the center of its largest climate ambition. In a May 8, 2019 announcement of its inaugural Environmental, Social and Governance report, the retailer said suppliers had reported avoiding more than 93 million metric tons of emissions over the preceding two years through Project Gigaton. Launched in 2017, the initiative invited suppliers to help avoid one billion metric tons across Walmart’s collective value chains by 2030. The announcement described a company goal built around participation beyond Walmart’s own operations. [story-s1]
The same release reported several separate measures, not one unified emissions result. Walmart said its Scope 1 and 2 annual greenhouse-gas emissions fell 6.1% from 2015 to 2017. It also said renewable sources supplied 28% of its electricity needs, against a goal of 50% by 2025. [story-s1]
Waste was another distinct measure: Walmart reported that in 2018 its U.S. operations diverted 81% of unsold products, packaging and other waste from landfills, while recycling more than 430 million pounds of plastic film and rigid plastics globally. The figures show how the company framed its environmental work across suppliers, energy and materials. They are company-reported indicators with different scopes and time windows, rather than a single independently comparable score. [story-s1]
Source documents
- Walmart on Track to Reduce 1 Billion Metric Tons of Emissions from Global Supply Chains by 2030https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2019/05/08/walmart-on-track-to-reduce-1-billion-metric-tons-of-emissions-from-global-supply-chains-by-2030