Last week was a fun one for us in the sustainability area.  A few times a year, we hold a meeting focused on sustainability with all of Walmart’s leadership, a huge group of other Walmart folks, and usually, a big group of suppliers to Walmart, NGO’s, and other people interested in sustainability.  They are always fun, but this one was particularly good.

The meeting started with each of the very top leadership to Walmart sharing their vision for how sustainability will continue to be embedded into the way we do business and the way we source our products.  The senior leadership made very clear points like, “Sustainability isn’t separate from your job, it is your job,” and “Sustainability is a large part of the Walmart brand, Save Money Live Better works with sustainability.”

The meeting ended with a discussion between Cameron Diaz and Walmart CEO Lee Scott.  I have to admit I was surprised by how great Cameron was.  She was funny, endearing, and inspiring.  She told us how she is currently taking off time from Hollywood to work on her dream…to get as many of the thing she uses in life as sustainable as possible.  Now, this is exciting for me, because this is what I get to spend a fair amount of my day doing. But, this got me thinking why should Cameron Diaz be the only person who gets to tell Walmart the products she wants to see improved?  So, what product at Walmart do you want to see improved to be more sustainable? 

I have heard some good suggestions on this blog, and I have learned about some items I didn’t even know.  I'd love to hear more.
For example, Laura commented about a cleaning product in CA, Holy Cow is the brand, and it sounds great, but its not even one I knew about. 
Also, Anna and Michelle both commented on the lines on the detergent bottles.  They are hard to see, and that could create waste.  This is now on my “questions for suppliers” list, and I’ll find out an answer for you.
Laura mentioned how she was frustrated by the fact that she couldn’t find the organic apparel separate from the other…this is something we are going to work on.
Finally Jonathan…your thoughts are always good.  I applaud Tesco for pushing the conversation about carbon labeling, but this one has to be done right.  You will see more from Walmart on this topic.  I can’t think of anything that could impact sustainability more than if every customer could easily know what products are more sustainable.
 

For some reason, I really like to talk about food in this blog.  Maybe its b/c I usually write this late at night when I’m getting the munchies.  Anyway, this time, I want to talk about produce.  Walmart’s produce area still has a lot of improving to do, but there is one recent change that is making me pretty excited…the focus on local.  Over the last two years, under the leadership of a great merchant named Ron, our produce area has made a concerted effort to increase its purchasing of, and ability to purchase locally grown fresh produce.  In fact, Ron’s team has committed to sourcing locally whenever possible.

To give you an idea how much they’ve focused on this, over the past two years, Walmart’s partnerships with local farmers have grown by 50 percent, and fruits and vegetables grown in any given store’s state now make up over a fifth of what’s available during summer months.  Now, statistics like this are nice, but its particularly cool when you see the results…a few examples:

Until recently, all of the fresh cilantro sold in Walmart stores was sourced from California. Then, Ron’s merchants found a grower named Duda Farms, and soon we started sourcing cilantro from Belle Glade, Florida for distribution in the eastern US.  Introducing Florida-grown cilantro resulted in an estimated savings of 250,000 food miles in a single season.

Additionally, Walmart has worked to optimize its sourcing of peaches.   We source 12 million pounds of peaches from 18 different states; not just well-known growing areas like Georgia and South Carolina. By sourcing from so many different states and selling the product locally, Wal-Mart saved 672,000 food miles and 112,000 gallons of diesel fuel.  Indeed, buying local can be a great thing for the planet.

There is one more reason this is a really cool thing.  It’s great for the customer and the business.  First, customers love the connection you feel and freshness you get from knowing that the tomato you are buying comes from a farmer in your state.  Second, all those food mile savings add up to lower transportation costs that we can pass on to the customer and lower the price.  For example, the total freight and gasoline savings from the peach example equal more than $1.4 million. 

More to come…