Big bad Walmart, the world's largest retailer used to get only negative press. But over the past few years, and because of a slew of changes specifically around implementing a sustainability practice, Walmart is quickly turning around their image.
The New York Times describes the effort create a universal rating system that scores products based on how environmentally and socially sustainable they are over the course of their lives. Consider it the green equivalent to nutrition labels.
The Daily Green published the Sustainability Product Index: 15 questions to ask suppliers, which I've pasted below:
Energy and Climate: Reducing Energy Costs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Have you measured your corporate greenhouse gas emissions?
- Have you opted to report your greenhouse gas emissions to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)?
- What is your total annual greenhouse gas emissions reported in the most recent year measured?
- Have you set publicly available greenhouse gas reduction targets? If yes, what are those targets?
Material Efficiency: Reducing Waste and Enhancing Quality
- If measured, please report the total amount of solid waste generated from the facilities that produce your product(s) for Walmart for the most recent year measured.
- Have you set publicly available solid waste reduction targets? If yes, what are those targets?
- If measured, please report total water use from facilities that produce your product(s) for Walmart for the most recent year measured.
- Have you set publicly available water use reduction targets? If yes, what are those targets?
Natural Resources: Producing High Quality, Responsibly Sourced Raw Materials
- Have you established publicly available sustainability purchasing guidelines for your direct suppliers that address issues such as environmental compliance, employment practices and product/ingredient safety?
- Have you obtained 3rd party certifications for any of the products that you sell to Walmart?
People and Community: Ensuring Responsible and Ethical Production
- Do you know the location of 100 percent of the facilities that produce your product(s)?
- Before beginning a business relationship with a manufacturing facility, do you evaluate the quality of, and capacity for, production?
- Do you have a process for managing social compliance at the manufacturing level?
- Do you work with your supply base to resolve issues found during social compliance evaluations and also document specific corrections and improvements?
- Do you invest in community development activities in the markets you source from and/or operate within?
Questions really a lot, but I can think about this in my spare time, the whole article is very interesting.
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