Wal-Mart Scores Vendors on Green Packaging

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 2/4/2008 12:00:00 AM

Bentonville, Ark. —

Aiming at reducing packaging material use by 5% by 2013, Wal-Mart Stores is rating its suppliers. A scorecard system has been in tests for a year; Wal-Mart said more than 97,000 products have been entered into the scorecard by 6,371 vendors.

"It's important to us that our suppliers see the intrinsic value behind sustainability, both for their business and the environment," said Matt Kistler, svp of sustainability. "It is a key responsibility of our suppliers to input new products and update packaging changes."

The scorecard evaluates the sustainability of product packaging based on greenhouse gas emissions, product-to-package ratio, space utilization, innovation, the amount of renewable energy used in production and emissions based on transport.

Suppliers receive a score in each of these metrics and can compare ratings to their competitors by product category.