Source : Procurement Leaders
Wal-Mart said it plans to roll its “sustainability scorecard” across another 100 categories across its US businesses this year
The world’s largest retailer piloted its scorecard scheme with suppliers in 10 categories over the past year and at an open ‘Sustainability Milestone’ meeting this week, it announced plans to extend that
“We will go to cereal and apparel, and we’re looking at hardware, electronics and toys,” Duncan MacNaughton, chief merchandising/marketing officer, Wal-Mart US, said. “Moreover, in 2013 “we’re going to spread [the scorecard] across the entire categories,” he added.
In addition, Wal-Mart is planning to soon launch an “incentive plan” incorporating sustainability progress for its buyers and merchants, and will recognize suppliers who are supporting sustainability as well as meet with suppliers “who aren’t doing so well,” Mac Naughton said.
Wal-Mart has been collaborating with the Sustainability Consortium, Tempe, Ariz., on developing category sustainability profiles, whereby suppliers are ranked by their sustainability progress, with actionable recommendations given to merchants for collaborating with suppliers, said Linda Hefner, chief merchandising officer, Sam’s Club, at the meeting.
Through focusing on the category level, Wal-Mart intends to ultimately provide more information at the product level, said Andrea Thomas, senior vice president, sustainability, Wal-Mart, according to a report in Supermarket News. “It’s natural to start at the broader category level, where you can impact more products in the short term,” she said. “In the long term, providing information for consumers is still within the scope [of the programme].
“The category-level analysis allows Wal-Mart to focus on “sustainability hot spots within those categories” and rank suppliers “based on information they provide us around those hot spots,” said Thomas. Wal-Mart is not making supplier information or rankings public, she added.