We do a lot of boasting in this blog (and wherever we can convince someone to give us a microphone), but some of you may want a little more evidence of our successes. Since it is Walmart supplier month here, today we thought we’d highlight the accomplishments of one such company over the past year. They didn’t want their name mentioned here – even though you should be proud of your decision to go green, it means admitting that you had a problem in the first place – but we’re honored to have helped the organization make tremendous strides.
Firm X is a medium-sized consumer products company that imports much of its inventory from China before shipping it off to Walmart. The firm’s headquarters lie adjacent to its one million square foot warehouse; executives are able to see first-hand how implementing sustainability improves company-wide operations. They came to us with a common problem: Walmart was demanding sustainability improvement and reporting, and Firm X had no idea where to start.
In just one year, SSC helped Firm X:
- Issue its first sustainability report
- Implement reporting guidelines and metrics, including GRI, CDP, and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development’s water tool
- Conduct its first waste audit, energy audit, and green office audit
- Conduct an audit of one of the firm’s major Chinese manufacturers
- Start an employee Green Team – which quickly resulted in a 10% increase in company-wide recycling!
- Finalize and implement new Sustainable Purchase Guidelines, a vendor code of conduct, and vendor evaluation forms
- Design company-wide processes for data collection for use in next year’s strategic planning and reporting processes
- Host a packaging workshop to investigate green packaging
- Improve its Walmart Sustainability Scorecard numbers by 66% in just 10 months
Whew! A representative of Firm X told us that the experience changed their views on sustainability; they previously had seen it as necessary process to appease its buyers – now they consider sustainability to be a moral and business imperative that benefits both stakeholders and the environment. And, of course, Walmart.
By the way…we can help you too! Here’s a link to our Walmart Supplier website!