Walmart marks two years of regenerative efforts

Walmart is committed to becoming a “regenerative” company — helping to renew people and the planet through its business.

First announced in September 2020, Walmart’s regenerative goals include reaching zero emissions in global operations and committing to help protect, manage or restore at least 50 million acres of land and 1 million square miles of ocean by 2030. Through innovations in energy and transportation, Walmart seeks to power 100% of its global operations with renewable sources of energy by 2035 and achieve our overall goal of zero emissions across global operations by 2040.  

[Read more: Walmart sets big new goal: Zero emissions by 2040]

Two years into its regenerative program, Walmart is reviewing the initiatives it has launched so far in pursuit of these goals. Highlights include:

• In July 2022, Walmart made a commitment to purchase 4,500 all-electric delivery vehicles from Canoo for delivering online orders with zero emissions.
• In 2021, an estimated 46% of Walmart's global electricity needs were supplied by renewable sources.
• In collaboration with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI), Walmart’s Great Value tuna is now sourced from Pacific Island Tuna, with much of the profits returned to local communities for social and environmental initiatives.
• One million acres in the Northern Great Plains are being protected through an improved soil health initiative in collaboration with Northern Great Plains cattle ranchers, WWF and the Walmart Foundation.
• Walmart intends to achieve zero operational waste by 2025. Globally, it has diverted 78% of operational waste from landfills and incineration in 2021.
• Walmart launched the Circular Connector as a platform to match circular packaging solutions with manufacturers.
• With a grant from Walmart Foundation, nonprofit Delterra will make Plastic IQ, a tool used to measure a product’s dependence on plastic, available now to companies in Central America as well.
• Through Project Gigaton, Walmart’s initiative to reduce or avoid one billion metric tons of emission from the global value chain by 2030—the company is engaging over 4,500 suppliers on taking measurable action across climate, nature and waste. This year, Walmart crossed the halfway mark toward its goal with suppliers reporting more than 574 million metric tons of emissions reduced or avoided globally.
• Since 2017, the Walmart Foundation has granted more than $67 million to benefit smallholder producers in Central America, India and Mexico.

“When Walmart set a goal to become a regenerative company in 2020, we knew that even if we did not have a clear roadmap for every issue, it was our responsibility to set a vision for the kind of future we wanted to help drive,” said Jane Ewing, senior VP, sustainability, Walmart, in a corporate blog post. “Our commitment was also meant to serve as a loud call to action for all our stakeholders—as collaboration, behavior change, innovation and a shared vision are all essential to achieving this transformative shift.

Walmart operates more than 10,500 stores and clubs under 46 banners in 24 countries and e-commerce websites.