Walmart

Lobbying
Walmart discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member.

Stakeholder engagement
Walmart discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and describes the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups. Furthermore, its stakeholder engagement activities cover nature, nutrition, and social issues.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Walmart discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Walmart has a commitment to ensure zero conversion, and discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains. The company also discloses the proportion of high-risk commodities which are conversion-free.

GHG emissions
Walmart discloses its target to reduce absolute global scopes 1 and 2 emissions 35% by 2025 and 65% by 2030 from 2015 base year and it reports progress against these targets which are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory. Additionally, the company targets to reduce or avoid one billion metric tons (MT) of scope 3 emissions by 2030 through its Project Gigaton and reports progress against these scope 3 targets.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Walmart discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices.

Solid and air pollution
Walmart demonstrates its commitment and partakes in various activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, discloses quantitative data and reports on the proportion of virgin polymer use.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion and community impact area.

Act ethically
Walmart has issued a publicly available policy statement that prohibits bribery and corruption and incorporates anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. Furthermore, it has established a grievance mechanism for stakeholder complaints.

The company identifies bribery and corruption risks through its risk-based global anti-corruption program, designed to prevent, detect, and remediate bribery and record-keeping violations in its operations worldwide. A senior executive responsible for compliance programs is mandated to regularly report to the audit committee. Additionally, the company has made a public commitment to protect personal data.

Provide and promote decent work
Walmart has a publicly available policy statement that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers, and discloses how it monitors suppliers’ compliance. Furthermore, it reports the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender and by race or ethnicity.

Respect human rights
Walmart has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights, along with a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders.

Furthermore, it discloses the results of its human rights risk assessments and provides several examples of initiatives undertaken by both the company and its foundation to combat forced labour and promote responsible recruitment. Additionally, it shares examples of its engagement with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities in the last two years.

Lobbying
The company has an opportunity to report (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and biodiversity. However, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Also, while the company reports consistently against some targets including climate and biodiversity, it could report consistently against all its targets. Additionally, although it discloses a remuneration policy related to sustainability, there is an opportunity to link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues. Lastly, the company could improve its transparency by disclosing whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company is not committed to restoring ecosystems, and it does not disclose details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

GHG emissions
The company’s scope 3 emissions targets are aligned with a 2-degree trajectory, yet it has an opportunity to align them with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While the company uses the Sustainability Consortium’s commodity mapping tool to gauge nature-related risks in its value chain and has initiated Project Gigaton to inspire supplier sustainability, it hasn’t publicly shared assessments about its own impact on biodiversity. Although it acknowledges a reliance on natural resources for its products and ingredients, it doesn’t disclose any assessments of its dependencies on nature either within its own operations or in its upstream business relationships.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
The company has an opportunity to disclose locations within or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity, both in its own operations and its supplier locations. It could also disclose existing species populations existing in or adjacent to both its own and its suppliers’ locations, as well as the conservation status of species identified at its own sites according to national and international lists.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to work towards a circular economy or which organisms it exploits. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Solid and air pollution
Although the company discloses the percentage of waste that is diverted from landfill overall, it currently does not report on the amount of plastic waste generated and the proportions that are directed towards disposal. Additionally, it could start reporting on the emissions of harmful air pollutants and outline specific, time-bound targets for reducing air pollutants throughout its value chain.

Water
The company does not disclose relevant information related to water, in its operations or supply chains.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not show if it is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company has an opportunity to commit to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders. Moreover, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
The company has a public statement setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach; however, it has an opportunity to formalise this approach in a public policy document. Moreover, it could establish a policy statement that emphasises its non-participation in political contributions, or alternatively, disclose criteria to make an exception. Additionally, it has an opportunity to transparently disclose lobbying expenditures for each jurisdiction and specifies the localities where it engages in lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment to its operations workers’ health and safety by formalising it into a public policy document. Additionally, it could set a time-bound target for ensuring all workers receive a living wage and describe the living wage determination methodology in regions where it operates. While it has set expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, it has an opportunity to add a requirement for them to pay a living wage, and disclose strategies to support the payment.

Furthermore, it could translate its commitment statements to gender equality and women’s empowerment in a public policy document and disclose a related time-bound target. It could also disclose that it has at least 30% women on the board.

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment to respecting the rights of its operations and supply chain workers by referencing all the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) fundamental rights at work and ensuring their applicability across all contexts and locations.

Additionally, the company could provide more details on its process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities, covering both its own operations and supply chain.

While the company discloses its salient human rights issues, there is an opportunity to more clearly articulate the process for assessing the saliency of these risks. It could also establish a global system to act on, prevent, or mitigate its salient human rights issues.