Walmart announced it is doubling down on addressing the growing climate crisis and plans to target zero emissions across the Arkansas-based company’s global operations by 2040.
The Bentonville company also said it is committed to protecting, managing and restoring at least 50 million acres of land and a million square miles of ocean by 2030 to combat what it called the “cascading loss of nature threatening the planet.”
“We want to play an important role in transforming the world’s supply chains to be regenerative. We face a growing crisis of climate change and nature loss and we all need to take action with urgency,” said Doug McMillon, president and chief executive officer, Walmart, Inc.
He said the commitments announced this week not only aim to decarbonize the company’s global operations but put Walmart on a path to becoming a regenerative company.
Walmart said it intends to harvest enough wind, solar and other renewable energy sources to power its facilities with 100% renewable energy by 2035.
It also has a goal of electrifying and zeroing out emissions from all of its vehicles, including long-haul trucks by 2040. It plans to transition to low-impact refrigerants for cooling and electrified equipment for heating by 2040.
“The world has also pushed its natural resources to the point of crisis, resulting in the degradation and loss of critical landscapes and the eradication of many species of plants and animals,” stated Walmart’s announcement.
“We must all take urgent, sustained action to reverse nature loss and emissions before we reach a tipping point from which we will not recover,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, executive vice president and chief sustainability officer for Walmart, Inc. and president of the Walmart Foundation.
Source: BusinessWire