CLIMATE CHANGE IS scary, and it’s only getting worse. We know that we’ll continue to endure increasingly destructive events like extreme weather, heat waves, drought, flooding, and sea level rise. It’s the challenge of our time, but there’s hope: we still have an opportunity to do something about it. While humans are definitely the cause of climate change, we’re also the solution.
A 2017 report found that just 100 companies were responsible for more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) since 1988. That’s an alarming statistic, but it means that companies have great power in helping to alleviate the crisis. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change called for a global reduction in emissions to net-zero by 2050. It’s an ambitious goal, and one that Walmart has taken seriously by creating aggressive targets for its own operations.
Walmart is working not only to become a more sustainable company, but a regenerative one––shifting in orientation from: “do no harm,” to “do more good” for people and the planet. Walmart’s sustainability efforts focus on four key pillars: climate, nature, waste, and people in supply chains. Through a myriad of initiatives like Project Gigaton™, goals to achieve zero operational waste, and efforts to help restore, renew and replenish natural ecosystems, Walmart aims to be part of the solution.
We can talk about climate change all we want, but as it becomes an increasingly urgent crisis, it’s ultimately about action.
Did you know that most emissions in retail exist in product supply chains? Most of those emissions come from raw materials, agriculture, and the freight that’s required to transport things around the globe. A study found that eight global supply chains, from food to fashion, account for over 50% of greenhouse gas emissions every year. Walmart’s supply chain alone consists of more than 100,000 suppliers, which is a huge network that’s ripe for action on climate. This matters because companies have the power to make changes that countries often cannot.
That’s why Walmart created Project Gigaton™: to engage its suppliers and encourage action and transparency on climate. Project Gigaton™ aims to avoid one billion metric tons (a gigaton) of emissions from Walmart’s global value chain by 2030 by inviting suppliers to set targets and take action in seven areas: energy use, product design and use, waste, packaging, deforestation, sustainable agriculture, and transportation. Between 2017 and 2020, Walmart has worked with over 3,100 companies (including Kimberly Clark, Unilever, Milo's Tea, Nestle, P&G, and Clorox) to reduce their emissions, making it one of the largest private sector consortiums in the world for climate action. Project Gigaton™ participants report having avoided more than 416 million metric tons of greenhouse gases; well on the way toward Walmart’s goal of avoiding a gigaton of emissions by 2030. And just how much is a gigaton of emissions? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, one gigaton is the equivalent of the emissions from 217 million vehicles a year.
Walmart is also taking action on waste. If food waste could be represented as its own country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. Reducing waste and diverting it from landfills is not only smart for the planet, but it also lowers operating costs. In 2020, Walmart diverted an estimated 81% of its global operational waste from landfills and incineration. And it aims to achieve zero operational waste in the U.S. and Canada by 2025.
Although plastic plays an important role in protecting and delivering quality products to consumers, Walmart is increasingly concerned about it going to waste. Around the world, people use a staggering one trillion plastic bags per year, and fewer than 10% are recycled. In 2016 less than 14% of plastic packaging worldwide was recycled. The rest went into landfills, rivers, and oceans (every year 8 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans). To address these concerns, Walmart envisages a world with zero plastic waste, and aims to help get us there by encouraging higher recycling participation rates, catalyzing innovations in waste reduction systems, and aiming to transition to 100% recyclable, reusable, or industrially compostable private brand packaging by 2025 (it's currently at 62%).
Reversing nature loss is also central to Walmart’s regenerative aspirations. Natural resources are required to sustain both life and business, but humans have pushed the planet to the brink. Worldwide, environmental losses are cascading, with extreme weather events continuing to grow in frequency, oceans acidifying, and biodiversity decreasing. Almost half of the world’s forests have already been lost, and deforestation accounts for 10% of annual emissions. Walmart knows that simple conservation efforts cannot reverse this trend. That’s why it has committed to protect, manage, or restore at least 50 million acres of land and 1 million square miles of ocean by 2030, along with the Walmart Foundation. Walmart aims to achieve this goal by encouraging regenerative practices in agriculture, fisheries, and forest management, and other initiatives, in addition to its existing efforts to preserve at least one acre of natural habitat for every acre of land developed by the company in the U.S.
But Walmart didn’t stop there. It has set ambitious climate mitigation goals, including realigning its emissions reduction target to a 1.5-degree Celsius trajectory—the highest ambition approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). It has also set a goal to achieve zero emissions across its global operations by 2040, without carbon offsets. By sharing its goals clearly and widely, Walmart hopes to inspire other companies to do the same, and by extension, educate consumers on which companies deserve their hard-earned dollars.
Undoubtedly, the problems we’re facing are overwhelming and scary, but solutions are within reach. Through robust sustainability efforts and extensive collaboration, Walmart aspires to create a future that restores, renews, and replenishes both people and planet. A future where everyone can live better.
*This story was produced by WIRED Brand Lab for Walmart.*
