Wal-Mart Evaluates Suppliers on the Sustainability of Packaging

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. released the initial results of its Packaging Scorecard, which evaluates Wal-Mart and Sam's Club suppliers on the sustainability of their packaging and offers suggestions for improvement. The results from the first month of operation show active use of the scorecard and a strong interest from product suppliers to make their packaging more sustainable. In the first month, 2,268 vendors have logged on to the site and 117 products have been entered into the system. The scorecard implementation is Wal-Mart's next step in moving toward achieving a five percent reduction in packaging by 2013. It evaluates the sustainability of product packaging based on greenhouse gas emissions related to production, material value, product to packaging ratio, cube utilization, recycled content usage, innovation, the amount of renewable energy used to manufacture the packaging, the recovery value of the raw materials and emissions related to transportation of the packaging materials. These criteria are valuable tools for suppliers to determine how their packaging innovations, environmental standards, energy efficiencies and use of materials compare to their peers. Suppliers will receive a score per package relative to their peers in each category. "We have already used the scorecard to evaluate two types of packaging," says Josh Hannay, business development manager from Ruiz Food Products, which supplies Wal-Mart with El Monterey brand frozen Mexican food products. "The scorecard was easy to use and gave us a single number that translates into how we're doing and how we can do better. Our company is looking forward to reducing waste while saving money."