Wal-Mart Stores CEO Mike Duke revealed
the details of the company's new green initiatives. The company is creating an index that will let consumers know how green a product is. To begin the ambitious project, it has asked suppliers all over the world to fill out surveys detailing practices which affect the environment.
Wal-Mart said the sustainability index — basically a scorecard for holding suppliers accountable — could lead to "higher quality, lower costs and measure the sustainability of products and help customers live better in the 21st century." Measuring the sustainability of a product poses many challenges, but Wal-Mart said its research-driven approach involving universities, retailers, suppliers and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) could accelerate and broaden this effort.
Wal-Mart is asking its 100,000 global suppliers to complete a survey with questions about energy and climate, natural resources, material efficiency and people and community, with specific questions on greenhouse gas emissions, location of factories, water use and solid waste produced. The retailer is asking its top-tier U.S. suppliers to complete the survey by Oct.1.
As part of the initiative, Wal-Mart is helping to create a consortium of universities, suppliers, retailers, NGOs and government to develop a global database of information about the life cycle of products, from raw materials to disposal. "It is not our goal to own this index," Duke said, noting that Wal-Mart will partner with one or more technology companies to create an open platform that will power the index.
The last step of the project will be translating the index into a rating that's easily understood by consumers. The system could take the form of a numeric score, color code or other type of label.
It's a very ambitious project that could lead the way for similar indexes from its competitors. Duke says that customers want to know where the products came from and if they were made in a sustainable way.
