In an initiative called Project Gigaton, the Walmart supplier network of over 4,500 has reduced or avoided over 574 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, a promising milestone toward the company’s goal of 1 billion metric tons (gigaton) of GHG avoidance. The project, which began in 2017, set out to enable suppliers to decarbonize product supply chains.
“Over the years, we have expanded Project Gigaton™ to focus action on six arenas in product supply chains that are key for emissions reduction and also tend to align with suppliers’ business priorities: energy use, nature, waste, packaging, transportation and product design,” wrote Kathleen McLaughlin, executive vice president and chief sustainability officer of Walmart, in a blog post.
“For each of these areas, we provide calculators that describe potential changes in business practices and translate them into emissions impact based on guidance from authoritative bodies such as CDP and leading NGOs [non-governmental organizations] like the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).”
Project Gigaton also provides suppliers renewable energy access and education in the Gigaton PPA program, Walmart’s renewable energy accelerator, and offers a financing option to suppliers who set “science-based emissions targets in line with the 1.5 Celsius degree pathway as reported to CDP.”
In tandem with Walmart’s project is a plan to further revise and address “Scope 3 targets”—GHG emissions caused by activities from companies that are not directly owned or controlled by Walmart. These targets are more difficult to obtain than Scope 1 or Scope 2 emissions because they occur outside of the companies’ direct operations.
This effort will continue to be collaborative, as stakeholders and policymakers at various level will be included in the conversation. Full Story
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