Sustainability Strategy In Walmart

What Walmart says and does about sustainability has a big impact as one of the world’s largest and most prominent retail businesses. Walmart Senior Director of Sustainability Zach Freeze joins the program on this week’s edition of the Retail Gets Real podcast to discuss how the firm is tackling sustainability from a strategic perspective, working toward ambitious objectives, and leading the way for the retail sector.

When Walmart started its sustainability initiatives in 2005, it started from the top down, with then-CEO Lee Scott establishing lofty targets like switching to renewable energy, offering more sustainable items, and eliminating waste at a time when few other big stores were doing so.

The goals have gotten more defined since then, but Freeze adds that the original entrance, which included executive-level attention and huge targets, “energized the organization in figuring out this is vital.”

“We’ve become more detailed,” Freeze adds, “but it’s really driven us to understand what this means to our business and the role Walmart can play in leading what we believe is the revolution to be a regenerative organization.”

Walmart is still a sustainability leader today, particularly in the field of climate change. “We are pleased to be a part of over 10,000 communities all around the world.” We employ almost 2 million people, and the changing climate will have an impact on us all. As a result, we have a role to play as Walmart,” Freeze explains. One of the company’s climate goals is to reduce emissions to zero throughout its global activities by 2040.

However, Walmart’s impact is greater than its own, which is why it developed Project Gigaton to address sustainability in its supply chain and network of suppliers, with the objective of decreasing emissions by one gigaton by 2030.