Category Archives: Walmart

Unpacking the Complexities of Packaging at Walmart's Sustainable Expo

By Jenny Ahlen | Published: April 28, 2011

Week three on the job at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and I had the opportunity to attend Walmart & Sam’s Club 6th Annual Sustainable Packaging Exposition in Rogers, Arkansas. The expo is part of Walmart’s efforts to reduce five percent of packaging in its supply chain by 2013 (based on a 2008 baseline). It acts [...]

Also posted in Events & Activities, Innovation, Paper & Packaging, Partnerships, Supply Chain Management | 3 Responses

Spreading Sustainability: From the Fortune 500 to the next 5,000

By Gwen Ruta | Bio | Published: April 27, 2011

Recently in Harvard Business Review, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer wrote about “The Big Idea” – that companies must take the lead by “creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges.” Driven by win-win success stories, by a vacuum in policy leadership, and by the [...]

Also posted in Behavior, EDF Climate Corps, Energy Efficiency, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Innovation, Innovation Exchange, News Commentary, Partnerships, Private Equity, Supply Chain Management, Treasure Hunts | Leave a comment

EDFbiz Brief: Highlights of our recent work

By Gwen Ruta | Bio | Published: April 26, 2011

Understandably, hectic schedules and information overflow makes it easy for news to sometimes slip through the cracks. This is why we want to recap some of the exciting things we’ve been working on over the last few months at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). EDF CLIMATE CORPS As we gear up for the summer, we’ve closed [...]

Also posted in About Us, EDF Climate Corps, Events & Activities, Innovation, Innovation Exchange, News Commentary, Partnerships, Quarterly Update | Tagged EDFbiz Brief, Innovation, Walmart | Leave a comment

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Walmart's Zero Waste Program

By MM Harvey | Bio | Published: March 24, 2011

In 2005, Walmart’s then-CEO Lee Scott announced his goal to generate zero waste. Vonda Lockwood, now Walmart’s Director for Store Innovations and Sustainability, remembers thinking that the zero waste goal was really going to complicate someone’s life. Shortly thereafter, she realized the newly complicated life was her own, when she was handed the task of [...]

Also posted in Innovation, Paper & Packaging, Partnerships | 2 Responses

Waste Not Want Not: Walmart explores closed-loop recycling

By EDF Staff | Published: February 15, 2011

By Daniel Upham, Writer, EDF Executive Office Operations One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and Walmart is starting to see the treasure potential of some of its own garbage. Walmart has been exploring closed-loop recycling, where trash goes in and new products come out, and one of its newer programs is literally for the [...]

Also posted in Energy Efficiency, Innovation, Paper & Packaging | Leave a comment

Our Top 10 of 2010: EDF's news at the intersection of business and the environment

By Monica Michaan | Published: January 3, 2011

As we kick off 2011, we’ve taken the time to highlight our efforts to accelerate environmental innovation across the business sector over the past year. Which story do you think has the greatest potential for creating significant change around business sustainability in the years to come? From Heresy to Dogma: How Uncommon Bedfellows Changed the [...]

Also posted in About Us, Behavior, EDF Climate Corps, Energy Efficiency, Events & Activities, Fleet Vehicles, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Innovation, News Commentary, Partnerships, Private Equity, Quarterly Update, Supply Chain Management, Tools, Treasure Hunts | Leave a comment

How to Grow Green Jobs – Business 101

By EDF Staff | Published: December 27, 2010

By: Jackie Prince Roberts In his recent feature story for the Washington Post, “Retrained for green jobs, but still waiting on work,” Michael A. Fletcher implies that there’s no future in green jobs because a few people in Florida can’t find them. But if you look at other parts of the country and across the [...]

Also posted in News Commentary | 3 Responses

The Walmart Chronicles: Energy Efficiency Ain't Rocket Science, But It Could Use a Boost

By Andrew Hutson | Bio | Published: December 17, 2010

Two years ago, I sat in a crowded ballroom in Beijing and listened to incoming Walmart CEO Mike Duke say, "By 2012, our goal is for the top 200 factories we source from directly in China to achieve 20 percent greater energy efficiency." It was music to my ears. Even though my organization, Environmental Defense [...]

Also posted in Energy Efficiency, Innovation, Partnerships, Supply Chain Management | 1 Response

We Are All Going to Be Naked Soon: Radical Corporate Transparency

By Gwen Ruta | Bio | Published: December 13, 2010

"We are all going to be naked," says my friend Andy Ruben in an intriguing TED talk, "so you might as well get buff." Referring to transparency in the corporate supply chain, this statement is pretty radical coming from a senior executive at Walmart. Despite its size and the fact that it is publicly traded, [...]

Also posted in Behavior, Energy Efficiency, Events & Activities, Innovation, News Commentary, Partnerships, Supply Chain Management | Leave a comment

From Heresy to Dogma: How Uncommon Bedfellows Changed the Environmental Movement

By Gwen Ruta | Bio | Published: November 15, 2010

By Gwen Ruta, VP of Corporate Partnerships, Environmental Defense Fund and Bob Langert, VP of Corporate Social Responsibility, McDonald's Corporation Twenty years ago this month, Corporate America experienced a paradigm shift. McDonald's announced that it would phase out its iconic Styrofoam clamshell containers, switching to paper products to reduce its environmental impact. While this was [...]