Walmart introduces Sustainable Product Index
By Calvin Posted on July 21st, 2009 in Latest News, Living GreenWal-Mart Stores, Inc. has recently announced it’s newest initiative: a program that demands all of its suppliers calculate their environmental cost, so Walmart can, in turn, determine eco-ratings for all products sold in stores.
Walmart recently met with 1,500 of its suppliers and associates, and made plans to develop a Sustainable Product Index, which will establish a single data source for checking the sustainability levels of it’s products.
Mike Duke, Walmart’s president and CEO explained their reasoning in their press release: “Customers want products that are more efficient, that last longer and perform better. And increasingly they want information about the entire lifecycle of a product so they can feel good about buying it. They want to know that the materials in the product are safe, that it was made well and that it was produced in a responsible way.
“We do not see this as a trend that will fade. Higher customer expectations are a permanent part of the future,” Duke also pointed out. “At Walmart, we’re working to make sustainability sustainable, so that it’s a priority in good times and in the tough times. An important part of that is developing the tools to help enable sustainable consumption.”
The initiative is driven within three phases, first beginning with surveying 100,000+ suppliers around the world. This survey will include fifteen questions based four areas: energy and climate, material efficiency, natural resources and people and community. Questions such as “Have you measured your corporate greenhouse gas emissions?”, “Do you know the location of 100 percent of the facilities that produce your product(s)?”, and “Have you set publicly available water use reduction targets? If yes, what are those targets?” are among them. With these, they will determine what they will use to evaluate their own efforts. This survey is aimed to be completed by October 1st.
The next step is Walmart’s collaborating with suppliers, retailers, NGOs, and government to develop the database of information. This will include the complete lifecycle of products – from raw materials to disposal.
“It is not our goal to create or own this index,” Mike Duke noted. “We want to spur the development of a common database that will allow the consortium to collect and analyze the knowledge of the global supply chain. We think this shared database will generate opportunities to be more innovative and to improve the sustainability of products and processes.”
The last step is to be able to translate the results in a simple rating the consumers will be able to utilize with ease, giving them the information within seconds, in the quality and the history of products sold at Walmart Stores.
The final step in developing the index will be to translate the product information into a simple rating for consumers about the sustainability of products. This will provide customers with the transparency into the quality and history of products that they don’t have today.
About Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), or “Walmart,” serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 7,900 retail units under 62 different banners in 15 countries. With fiscal year 2009 sales of $401 billion, Walmart employs more than 2.1 million associates worldwide. A leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity, Walmart ranked first among retailers in Fortune Magazine’s 2009 Most Admired Companies survey. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting www.walmartstores.com. Online merchandise sales are available at www.walmart.com and www.samsclub.com.
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Discussion Take a look at what is being said about this article.
Peter Hutchens, on July 21st, 2009 says:
This will be great – regardless if you buy it at wal-mart or not, then you know as they supply large brands.
michelle, on July 21st, 2009 says:
good point, peter – this definitely helps all across the board, having an open-source resource.
Christa, on July 21st, 2009 says:
undoubtedly this might prod wal-mart to get really “eco’ with their own goods, too.
Jason, on July 21st, 2009 says:
Walmart will always be in the business to make money. That is the only reason they are doing this. Tax breaks, green buzz words, etc… How much of this ECO stuff is made in China?! I cannot shop there cause China makes terrible stuff for the most part and pollutes way to much.
Odum, on July 21st, 2009 says:
This is a good first step for Walmart, but they have a long, long way to go before I will even consider them being “eco” or “green”.
Their treatment of their employees, their aggressive expansion and simply poor quality goods are some of reasons why I don’t and will not shop there.
That being said so many people do shop there so hopefully this is just the beginning in Walmart’s initiatives to becoming more eco-conscience.
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