Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 4/20/17


Walmart on Wednesday launched a sustainability platform inviting suppliers to join in committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) resulting from their operations and supply chains.

Dubbed Project Gigaton, this initiative will provide an emissions reduction toolkit to a broad network of suppliers seeking to eliminate one gigaton of emissions, focusing on areas such as manufacturing, materials and use of products by 2030.

In a news release, the company estimated achieving the goal would be equivalent to taking more than 211 million passenger vehicles off of U.S. roads and highways for a year.

The company aims to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 18 percent by 2025. The retailer will also work to reduce carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions from upstream and downstream Scope 3 sources by one billion tons (a gigaton) between 2015 and 2030.

Scope 1 is direct GHG emission. Scope 2 is energy indirect GHG, such as emissions from the consumption of purchased electricity, steam, or other sources of energy (e.g. chilled water) generated upstream from the organization. Scope 3 refers to other indirect GHG, such as emissions that are a consequence of the operations of an organization, including employee commuting, business travel, third-party distribution and logistics, production of purchased goods, emissions from the use of sold products, and several more, according to iCompli Sustainability.

Walmart has identified energy, agriculture, waste, packaging, deforestation and product use and design as the goal areas in which to focus their Scope 3 climate efforts. Participating suppliers are encouraged to focus their commitment in one or more of these goal areas.

To help suppliers make commitments to emission reduction, or to establish emission reduction projects, Walmart collaborated with NGOs, like World Wildlife Fund and Environmental Defense Fund and other organizations to create an emissions reduction toolkit. In this toolkit, Walmart highlights the business case for why suppliers should consider signing on to Project Gigaton.
"Supply chains are the new frontier of sustainability. The journey products take from source to shelf will collectively shape our planet’s future," said Carter Roberts, president and CEO, World Wildlife Fund.

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