Walmart lays out ambitious new sustainability plan

Walmart wants to make its business a whole lot greener by 2025 and has unveiled its roadmap to achieving that goal.

At the recent Net Impact Conference in Philadelphia, Walmart Stores Inc. CEO Doug McMillon announced the company’s intent to expand and enhance its sustainable sourcing policy to cover 20 commodities as well as double its sales of locally grown produce.

The world’s largest retailer is also putting in place a plan to achieve science-based targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in its operations by 18% over the next several years. This goal will be achieved, Walmart says, through adoption of energy-efficient measures and by committing to sourcing half of its energy needs from renewable sources.

Walmart claims to be the first retailer with an emissions-reduction plan approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative in alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement, which was struck last December.

Among its other goals, Walmart will continue to work towards achieving zero waste to landfill in its key markets, which include Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States. In 2015, 75% of the retailer’s global waste was diverted from landfills. Walmart will also continue to “reduce landfill waste in all markets, moving as fast as infrastructure and best practices allow.” The company currently operates in 28 countries.

New packaging commitments have also been made with Walmart pledging to work with its suppliers to reduce product and packaging waste and to have its own private brand packaging be 100% recyclable by 2025.

Read more about Walmart’s new sustainability plan