Walmart: Social and Environmental Impacts

It comes as no surprise that Walmart is the largest retailer in the world. Several years ago, Walmart began raising its environmental and social standards. In addition to reducing harmful materials, they planned to raise product safety and quality standards in their supply chains. There were concerns about how well Walmart would do economically, especially with the Great Recession beginning. By bettering the environment, keeping the world sustainable, and improving social responsibility, they are adding additional costs that can hurt the company.

However, that was not the case. By raising their standards, Walmart created shared value. Instead of adding costs, they reconceived products and markets by taking out costs on wasted materials which in turn lowers prices for customers. Walmart also redefined productivity in the value chain by reducing their carbon footprints and costs. With this, workers that help supply Walmart can benefit and do better because they are not working with the harmful chemicals in some products, and they can hire more suppliers that are environmental. Customers will also feel better about buying products at Walmart because they are cheap and eco-friendly.

After 5 years, this campaign is still progressing and it’ll take a longer time until Walmart can fully implement a system that is 100% sustainable.

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