Walmart cut 230 million tons of emissions

Walmart has cut 230 million metric tons of greenhouse gases out of its supply chain with supplier help in the past three years. The retailer is now on track to reduce its cumulative carbon footprint by a billion tons by the end of 2030.

In 2019, the company released 18 million metric tons of greenhouse gases across its own operations within roughly 12,000 stores, known as Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Those don’t include suppliers’ emissions, called Scope 3, which account for most greenhouse pollutants in the supply chain.[DG1]  However, Walmart has been successfully able to maintain these cuts by shifting towards the usage of clean energy and environmentally friendly product design and packaging.

About 29 per cent of Walmart’s electricity now comes from renewable sources. Kathleen McLaughlin, the company’s chief sustainability officer, expects that figure to hit 35 per cent by the end of the year.

The company has been shifting to more sustainable packaging as packaging waste has become a top priority amongst increasing pressure from investors as well as customers. They are utilizing more reusable and refillable packaging models and are supporting supplier efforts through Walmart-created playbooks  about alternative materials or more sustainable plastic options.

As part of this shift, Walmart is identifying ways to eliminate gratuitous packaging. For instance, their trash cans were once packaged in cardboard boxes. However, they can now just be banded together. Their reusable bag sales have also been up 42% globally.

Read the original article here or visit their website for a more detailed breakdown on their environmental highlights.