Walmart plans to cut 150% of their global carbon footprint by 2015

The super chain Walmart recently announced in a webcast press conference their five year plan to cut 20 million metric tons of their greenhouse gas emissions in to reduce their estimated global carbon footprint growth by 150%. This being the equivalent of the annual emissions of 3.8 million cars.

“Energy efficiency and carbon reduction are central issues in the world today,” said Mike Duke, Walmart president and CEO. “We’ve been working to make a difference in these areas, both in our own footprint and our supply chain. We know that we have an opportunity to do more and the capacity to do more.”

And how do they plan on executing this lofty plan? With help from the Environmental Defense Fund, PricewaterhouseCoopers, ClearCarbon Inc., the Carbon Disclosure Project and the Applied Sustainability Center (ASC) at the University of Arkansas, they will work with their suppliers to rethink how they can make their products more energy efficient, reduce packaging, waste and transport length, etc.

This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2010.