BENTONVILLE, Ark.—Walmart announced plans to develop a worldwide sustainable product index that will establish a single source of data for evaluating the sustainability of products.
“Customers want products that are more efficient, last longer and perform better,” said Mike Duke, Walmart’s president and CEO. “And increasingly they want information about the entire lifecycle of a product so they can feel good about buying it. They want to know the materials in the product are safe, it was made well and was produced in a responsible way.”
The company will introduce the initiative in three phases, beginning with a survey of its more than 100,000 suppliers around the world. The survey includes 15 questions that will serve as a tool for Walmart’s suppliers to evaluate their own sustainability efforts. The questions will focus on four areas: energy and climate; material efficiency; natural resources, and people and community.
