Walmart Green Supply Chain Management

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How has Wal-Mart created value along the supply chain through introduction of sustainable and green supply chains? Wal-Mart, the global retailer has been one of the most successful and most profitable companies in the world, and a large part is due to its supply chain management. Heying and Sanzero (2009) describe it as the cornerstone to the company’s success and a major competitive advantage in the retail/ department store industry. However as successful as the company was, it still had a major issue with environmentalists who saw the company as a vast multinational conglomerate polluting the earth. It was not until in October 2005 that the then CEO of Walmart Lee-Scott decided to lead the multinational company in another direction, and launch a sustainable green strategy in order to dramatically diminish the companies impact on the global environment. Lee-Scott described that “being a good steward of the environment and being profitable are not mutually exclusive. They are one and the same” (E.Plambeck 2007). Wal-Mart then commited to three inspirational goals “To be supplied 100 percent renewable energy; to create zero waste; and to sell products that sustain our resources and the environment” also known as wal-marts 14 sustainable value networks. (E. Plambek 2007) (exhibit 1) As there is increasing awareness within consumers for a ‘greener environment’, life cycle assessments, combined with life cycle thinking (LCT) help to identify and implement possible improvements or processes to goods and services which simultaneously are able to provide a sustainable environment. The key reasons driving this development include government regulations moving in the direction that manufacturers are not only responsible for direct manufacturing impacts but also for impacts associated with product distribution, disposal and recycling. In addition, with environmental

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