Walmart aims to galvanize collective climate action across the retail and consumer goods sector through our ambitious targets and mitigation initiatives, advocacy, supplier engagement, philanthropy and innovation in product supply chain practices, while taking steps to strengthen the resilience of our business against the effects of climate change.
Walmart has committed to science-based targets (SBTs) for emissions reduction, including achieving zero emissions in our operations by 2040 and engaging suppliers through our Project Gigaton to reduce supply chain emissions by 1 billion metric tons by 2030. We achieved a 12.1% reduction in scopes 1 and 2 emissions between our 2015 calendar year (CY) baseline and 2019. And we’re proving that we can reduce emissions while growing revenues by reducing our carbon intensity by 19% since FY2016 versus FY2020, as measured by CO2 e/$M revenue. In support of these ambitions, we are committed to 100% renewable electricity by 2035; in 2020, an estimated 36% of our global electricity needs were supplied by renewable sources.
Because most emissions in the retail sector lie in product supply chains (scope 3) rather than in stores and distribution centers (scopes 1 and 2), we launched Project Gigaton to engage suppliers, NGOs and other stakeholders in climate action.
Project Gigaton aims to avoid one billion metric tons (a gigaton) of greenhouse gases in the global value chain by 2030 by inviting suppliers to set targets and take action in six areas: energy use, product design and use, waste, packaging, nature and transportation.
We want to democratize climate action by making resources available for any supplier to get started and increase their ambition and impact over time—sparking the large-scale engagement and innovation needed to decarbonize supply chains and achieve a net-zero future. We have designed the Project Gigaton platform to accommodate suppliers who vary in their readiness and capabilities to undertake intensive GHG reduction efforts. The platform offers resources such as calculators to help set and report on goals within the initiative, workshops on best practices and links to additional resources and initiatives.
Several organizations have supported the effort, including World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and CDP. They help us improve the methodologies, review supplier submissions, support several of our Gigaton-related initiatives and lead many initiatives of their own to draw down emissions across global supply chains.
More than 3,100 suppliers have formally signed on, making Project Gigaton one of the largest private sector consortiums for climate action. We have recognized 883 suppliers as Giga Gurus, a title provided to project participants that have set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time‐limited), agreed to share them publicly and reported avoiding emissions in the most recent reporting year. We’ve also recognized 490 suppliers as Sparking Change agents because they have either set SMART goals and agreed to share them publicly or have reported avoiding emissions in the most recent reporting year.
Under Project Gigaton, suppliers report having avoided more than 186 MMT of CO2e in 2020, for a cumulative total of more than 416 MMT of CO2e avoided since 2017.
We have also created a new tool that assists factories to become more energy efficient, tracking energy use and reductions, and converting those savings to GHG reductions; over 490 factories have signed up to date.
Supplier Stories:
One of our apparel and home suppliers located in Jiangsu province, China, reported a total of 171,902 metric tons of carbon emissions reduced since 2017. This supplier actively improved energy efficiency on their dyeing process, which used to consume significant electricity. The upgrading of the dyeing machine’s insulation saved them more than RMB1million in energy cost. In addition, this supplier’s solar PV project is generating nearly 6 million kWh of electricity. They also helped reduce their plastic waste and carbon emissions by using 677 tons of recycled polyester on products in 2020.
Another China supplier from Fujian province, which provides toys to Walmart, reported a total reduction of 173,934 metric tons in carbon emissions since 2017. This supplier did a great job on improving energy efficiency across their manufacturing process, including upgrading the efficiency of their air compressors, freezers, plastic injection machines, and calendaring machine, etc. This supplier is also making progress with introducing more energy efficient products for consumers. For example, the electricity consumption of a pool pump used on their products, was reduced from 480W per hour to 239W per hour, ultimately, helping consumers reduce their carbon emissions when using these products.
(The above content was provided to IPE by the brand, who is responsible for the accuracy of the data.)