The WalMart Sustainability Index
Index Step 1: Supplier Assessment
Walmart will provide each of its 100,000 global suppliers with a survey of 15 simple, but powerful, questions to evaluate their own company’s sustainability. The questions are divided into four areas:
Energy and Climate
Natural resources
Material efficiency
People and Community
Under these categories are some familiar questions on greenhouse gas emissions and location of factories, but the list also includes some new areas, such as water use and solid waste produced. For a complete list of the questions, visit walmartstores.com
Walmart will ask its top tier U.S. suppliers to complete the survey by Oct.1. Outside the United States, the company will develop timelines on a country-by-country basis for suppliers to complete the survey.
These are not complicated questions, but we have never systematically asked for this kind of information before. This is an important first step in assessing the sustainability of suppliers, but for true transparency, we also need a tool for the sustainability of products.
Fact
http://walmartstores.com/Sustainability/9292.aspx
http://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/
"If flies are allowed to vote, how meaningful would a poll on what to have for dinner be, and what would be on the menu?" - Unknown
Toby Considine Chair, OASIS oBIX Technical Committee
Co-Chair, OASIS Technical Advisory Board
Facilities Technology Office
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC | | Email: Toby.Considine@ unc.edu
Phone: (919)962-9073 http://www.oasis-open.org blog: www.NewDaedalus.com |
Great conversation on the working meeting today. I think reaching out to the existing certificate efforts in APX, Sterling Planets, and various environmental registries is a good idea.
Could not find the article I read last night on Wal-Mart’s new standards for environmental sourcing. I will go home and riffle through my hard copy at home and find which magazine I actually read it in and report back later.
tc
"Energy and persistence conquer all things." -- Benjamin Franklin