Wal-Mart Canada Focuses on "Green Shipping"

Change employees were delighted to read in Newswire.ca that Wal-Mart Canada is continuing to focus on green initiatives with a recent focus on shipping with green in mind. Wal-Mart Canada has announced a new way to work with their providers by using a "Supply Chain Sustainability Scorecard". This scorecard which will be introduced in October 2007 will assist Wal-Mart Canada in assessing it's current service providers "on the basis of environmental impact, efforts and improvement" (Newswire.ca).

This new initiative keeps Walmart's three sustainability goals in mind: 
    1.  To produce zero waste;
    2.  To be powered 100 per cent by renewable energy; and,
    3.  To make more environmentally preferable products available to
        customers.

Lesley Smith, Wal-Mart Canada's vice president of supply chain reports that "Our [Wal-Mart Canada's] new rules for supply chain sustainability will cover everything from fuel use, to facilities and equipment standards, to the overall environmental commitment demonstrated by the companies we hire to ship and store our products. As always, the business case and payback is twofold: a better operation with better environmental effect (Newswire.ca)." It appears that Wal-Mart Canada is exceeding even government and industry standards in it's focus on sustainability.

Wal-Mart Canada has already shown that with green initiatives in mind you not only help the community but also can make monies. For instance, in 2006 Wal-Mart Canada and their shipping supplier SCM changed the way they shipped goods to 10 stores in PEI and Nova Scotia. This allowed a reduction of 2,600 tonnes of carbon emissions, as well the company then converted 20 of their truck generators to electric power saving another 40,000 litres of fuel. These two changes are predicted to save Wal-Mart Canada $2 million annually.

The efficiency in transportation by Wal-Mart Canada is in line with environmental goals as well as meeting the needs of their business model. By saving monies on the transportation and being able to re-use materials (such as boxes), the company is able to maintain it's "everyday-low-cost approach" that it's known for.

Lastly, it is thrilling to see that a company is willing to put in place a Scorecard that is measureable and hold it's own service providers accountable. With this scorecard in place Wal-Mart Canada will be able to "provide a quantifiable benchmark for future improvements".

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