Lee Scott, chief executive of Wal-Mart, says that Wal-Mart will meet its thousands of Chinese suppliers in fall this year to advocate energy saving and emissions control.
"We've started a very aggressive strategy in China that is not only going to deal with environmental sustainability, but also with the issues of sourcing in China," said Scott at a summit meeting of the Wall Street Journal.
Scott said that to help speed its efforts in China, Wal-Mart had hired an outside consulting firm. It would also work with non-governmental organizations to help its inspectors understand each of the Chinese suppliers' sustainability initiatives. He added that Wal-Mart's premier task in China is to seek a proper waste disposal solution as well as to make reductions in both waste and greenhouse gas emissions. According to him, Wal-Mart will adopt the same measures in China as it does among the American suppliers by reducing packaging and increasing efficiency.
As the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart is considered one of the few companies that can use its own power to tackle environmental issues. In the U.S., Wal-Mart has begun to push suppliers to reduce packing on their products and set a goal of one day producing no waste and using renewable energy. However, the company has encountered some troubles in its environmental efforts. For example, it has found that pushing suppliers to make electronics that use less energy or can easily be recycled is not so easy as it looks, and it needs to do a lot of work to re-educate these companies.
