World’s largest retailer Walmart has today announced it is targeting zero emissions across the company’s global operations by 2040, while also committing to protect, manage, or restore at least 50 million acres of land and one million square miles of ocean by 2030.
Walmart says it is building on its long-standing commitment to climate action by raising its ambition to zero emissions by 2040, without the use of carbon offsets across its global operations. The company will be harvesting wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources to power its facilities.
“We want to play an important role in transforming the world’s supply chains to be regenerative. We face a growing crisis of climate change and nature loss and we all need to take action with urgency,” said Doug McMillon, president and chief executive officer, Walmart.
Because most of the company’s environmental impact comes from its supply chain, Walmart is also working with suppliers through its Project Gigaton initiative to avoid a gigaton of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. More than 2,300 suppliers have signed on, and since the effort launched in 2017, suppliers report a total of 230 million metric tons of avoided emissions.
To date, Walmart powers around 29% of its operations with renewable energy and diverts approximately 80% of its waste from landfills and incineration globally.
