Walmart, Suppliers Launch Recycling Fund

Walmart announced a fund to invest $100 million in recycling infrastructure projects and joined CEOs from Kellogg, Coca-Cola, Monsanto and other major companies to sign sustainable agriculture and supply chain commitments at Walmart’s inaugural Sustainable Product Expo.

The three-day event, which kicked-off yesterday, included pledges from participating suppliers that joined with Walmart and the Walmart Foundation in announcing a recycling initiative called the Closed Loop Fund.

Other organizations involved in the expo include: Environmental Defense Fund, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Campbell Soup Company, PepsiCo, Keurig Green Mountain, Cargill, General Mills, World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, Dairy Farmers of America and Goldman Sachs.

The expo highlighted initiatives to further expand access to sustainable products and create more transparency in the supply chain. For example, with Procter & Gamble, Walmart announced a commitment to a 25 percent reduction in water per dose for all liquid laundry detergent.

Working with Cargill, Walmart is developing a small-scale pilot focused on improved beef supply chain visibility, including increased traceability elements resulting in more visibility from farm to fork. This is part of Walmart’s goal to source 15 percent of its beef supply with environmental criteria by 2023.

Additionally, eight of the food companies announced sustainable food pledges, expected to bring 8 million acres of farmland into sustainable agriculture programs and eliminate 6 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Among these, Campbell committed to a goal of reducing GHG emissions and water use by 20 percent per ton of food for its five key agricultural ingredients (tomatoes, carrots, celery, potatoes and jalapenos).

Additionally General Mills committed to expand 2.5 times the acreage enrolled in the Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture’s Field to Market sustainable agriculture initiative to 2.5 million acres by 2015. And Monsanto pledged to introduce data management tools that give farmers more choices to measurably improve nitrogen use efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions on at least 1 million acres by 2020.