Sustainable packaging and Wal-Mart
In an effort to connect buyers, product suppliers and packaging suppliers, Wal-Mart held this week its 8th annual Sustainable Packaging Exposition. The retailer looks to drive innovation, “every day low cost” and savings through the collaborative sharing of successes and ideas for new ways to improve product packaging.
With 163 exhibitors sharing their latest innovations with 2,100 attendees, Wal-Mart has created a synergetic event with a spotlight on sustainability.
PACKAGING SUCCESS
The highlight of the exposition comes through the supplier success stories that run throughout the first half of the day, where suppliers showcase the triple bottom line benefits from packaging modifications.
Stories are from companies like Utz Potato Stix, with a narrative involving a change in the foil membrane of their can.
This minor change in packaging allows Utz to save 41,270 pounds of aluminum annually, and 52,000 pounds of paper per year. Other similar stories include redesign of boxes allowing for stronger boxes that fit more items or reducing weight through material changes.
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Wal-Mart ups the ante on sustainability
story by Kim Souza
ksouza@thecitywire.com
When Wal-Mart made a pledge toward sustainability in 2006, many thought it would be a passing phase. But in 2013, suppliers are getting a wake-up call as the retail giant will begin probing into and rating products by sustainability standards.
Last fall, Wal-Mart asked 3,000 of its largest suppliers for climate change disclosures as measured through the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Only 37% responded.
Duncan Mac Naughton, chief merchandising officer for Walmart U.S., noted last year in the retailer’s Greenroom blog, “Working in partnership with nearly 100 other companies, we think we’ve found an innovative way to drive change. The Sustainability Consortium has begun delivering tools to our product buyers to help us evaluate product and supplier sustainability.”
He said there are scorecards and other metrics that let buyers compare one supplier’s products with another.
“We have started integrating this work into our buying processes. Every buyer will have sustainability goals as part of his or her objectives, and we will use the Index as the tool to measure progress against those goals. We’ll recognize and reward those buyers and suppliers who are doing well. We will also ask suppliers who aren’t performing well to develop plans to improve, and we’ll hold them accountable for showing progress,” Mac Naughton noted.
He admitted this wasn’t the easiest topic to take on but it is becoming part of how business is done at Wal-Mart.
“We’re keeping at it, and we are delivering. The Sustainability Index…coming soon to a shelf near you,” Mac Naughton said.
Analysts say Wal-Mart has grown impatient with suppliers and is now more or less forcing their hand, as products ranking high will get on the shelf and those falling short of sustainable goals will be discontinued.
Buyers (Wal-Mart employees who buy from vendors) are the frontline decision makers for what products get approval and there is now a financial incentive for them to weed out the suppliers who fail to comply with sustainable initiative. Five percent of a buyer’s performance objective must come from sustainable suppliers
It’s Walmart’s most ambitious environmental endeavor thus far, said Greg Stine, president and CEO of SustainEdge, a sustainability consultant firm who works with smaller to medium size suppliers and businesses to develop sustainable practices. This initiative has the weight to change the way all sorts of products are made. The sheer scale of Wal-Mart and its 150,000 SKUs (stock keeping items) is monumental, Stine said.
SustainEdge works directly with suppliers who will soon be rated and ranked according to their peer competitors. It’s fair to say some suppliers have mixed emotions about the mandate, while others have willingly jumped aboard. Miller Coors has reported it has worked with barley farmers to reduce their use of water and pesticides. Procter & Gamble has said the Wal-Mart questions were basic for any company operating responsibly.
Small business owner Jan Long said her product, Mr. Canary bird feeders, are sustainable in that they are made from recycled plastic. She also redesigned the packaging to take-up half the designated shelf space and was rewarded with 2,000 additional stores this year. keep reading
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Buildings Using Energy Star Portfolio Manager Realized Total Savings of 7%
35,000 buildings that used the Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool to track and manage energy use between 2008 and 2011 realized
an average annual savings of 2.4 percent with a total savings of 7 percent, according to EPA.
Buildings that consistently benchmark energy performance do, in fact, save energy, according to the most recent analysis in the Portfolio Manager DataTrends Series, the largest U.S. building energy benchmarking data analysis to date.
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Energy Points and SustainEdge Launch University Sustainability Initiative
BOSTON, Oct 09, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Energy Points, a provider of energy analytics for universal resource management, and SustainEdge, a leading sustainability consultancy, today announced the launch of the Higher Edge Energy Points Solution (HEEP), a comprehensive trial solution designed to increase sustainability and reduce energy consumption at academic campuses.inability Initiative Pilot Program to Enable Universities and Campuses to Measure Environmental Impact of Resource Consumption
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Energy Points Partners with SustainEdge to Power Sustainability Project Decision Making
Walsh & Associates the First Joint Customer to use EnergyPoints Analytics for Project Comparison and Decision Support
Energy Points, the total energy analytics company, and SustainEdge, the leading Midwest sustainability consultancy, today announced a strategic partnership to deliver a comprehensive solution that powers enterprise resource management and planning decisions. Walsh & Associates, one of the largest chemical distributors in the U.S., is the first joint customer to use the sustainability solution to power resource decisions across multiple locations.
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Morgan Stanley and Other Banks Get Serious About Sustainable Investing
The new platform at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, whose 4 million clients hold some $1.7 trillion in investable assets, takes a run at organizing the firm’s SRI offerings. It divides the space into four categories (in order of increasing impact): screening out investments in objectionable companies and debt; environmental, social and governance integration, or paying attention to ESG factors when choosing debt and equity investments; investment products focusing on green or socially friendly themes and sectors; and impact investing, which consists of private equity and private debt investments in social enterprises bent on making positive change.
The platform contains 70 products, ranging from mutual funds screening for tobacco and firearms to a private equity fund focused on project-level renewable-energy investments. As part of the broader Investing with Impact initiative, Irby and her global sustainable finance group are working with other Morgan Stanley business units to develop new products.
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Firms on London Stock Exchange Will be Forced to Report CO2 Data
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All LSE-listed businesses will have to report total greenhouse gases for the year beginning April 2013. The regulations will be reviewed in 2015, before ministers decide whether to extend the approach to all large companies from 2016, the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.
The UK government sees reporting as the first vital step for companies to make reductions in emissions. It’s estimated the policy will save four million tons of CO2 emissions by 2021. The UK has made a commitment to cut its carbon emissions to 50 percent of 1990 levels by 2025.
