Wal-Mart Identifying Suppliers ‘Instrumental’ to Achieving Sustainability Goals
Wal-Mart is identifying suppliers “instrumental to our sustainability progress” based on responses to questions sent out in the development of a Sustainable Product Index, the retailer said in its 2010 global sustainability report. Suppliers were asked to respond to 15 questions in areas such as energy and climate, natural resources and material efficiency, it said.
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The index, expected to be completed by 2015 “through several stages,” will become a tool for “merchants, manufacturers and customers to use as a source for information on the sustainability of a product,” the company said. The questionnaire to suppliers was the first step in the development of the index, it said, and the information received is being used to track suppliers crucial to the company’s sustainability goals and those that “need greater support in building a more sustainable business."
Wal-Mart also joined the Sustainability Consortium as a founding member. The consortium, made up of scientists, engineers, academics and manufacturers, retailers and others, will build and maintain a global database on products’ life cycle from raw material use to disposal. The data will be used to as a “backbone” for the development of a “consumer facing index tool,” Wal-Mart said. “When the database is complete, the index will use the information to label products with a consumer-friendly rating system which customers can use to compare the sustainability of similar products."
A group of electronics makers and retailers announced in January that it will team up with the consortium to help consumers identify “green” electronics. The companies include Best Buy, Dell, HP, Intel, Toshiba and Wal-Mart. “While this rating system is still in discussion, the goal of the index is to empower customers to make purchasing decisions that have less impact on their homes, environment and communities around the world,” Wal-Mart said.
Wal-Mart said it met its U.S. goal of selling only RoHS-compliant PCs and large electronics. All its TVs, PCs, MP3 players, video games and cameras meet the rules, the company said. Eighty-five percent of electronics sold by Wal-Mart China are RoHs-compliant, the company said. In India, Wal-Mart franchisee Bharti Retail is complying with the country’s energy rating labels for appliances, including TVs and refrigerators, it said.
On supplier sourcing, Wal-Mart said 93 percent of its direct sourcing goods are now produced in factories that have one of the retailer’s two highest ratings for social and environmental practices. That compares with a goal of 95 percent such product sourcing by 2012. The company also has set an “aggressive” goal of eliminating 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its global supply chain by 2015, it said.