Walmart: The Challenges Hampering Sustainability Progress

In 2005, Walmart's CEO spoke of visionary sustainability goals.

Twenty years later, the company is still attempting to achieve these ambitions, embedding related values throughout its supply chain.

Now, sustainability experts and Walmart leaders have been reflecting on Lee Scott's legacy and the journey the company still faces. 

Walmart’s 20-year sustainability journey

In 2005, Walmart CEO Lee Scott set out a vision that reshaped how global companies view sustainability.

Speaking at the firm’s Arkansas headquarters, he declared three goals that would define the retailer’s environmental agenda:

• To power all operations with renewable energy
• To create zero waste
• To sell products that sustain natural resources and the environment

"These goals are both ambitious and aspirational, and I'm not sure how to achieve them, at least not yet," said Lee. 

Twenty years later, Walmart continues to pursue these aims across its vast supply chain network.

Its 2025 ESG report states that 48.5% of the company’s electricity comes from renewable sources, while Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions have dropped 18.1% below the 2015 baseline. Waste reduction is also embedded within logistics, distribution and retail operations, with 83.5% of waste now diverted globally.

Yet Walmart’s progress remains uneven. Despite infrastructure investments and efficiency gains, the company’s supply chain still poses the largest obstacle to fully sustainable operations.

Supply chain complexities

Jon Johnson, professor at the University of Arkansas’s Walton College of Business, assesses the company’s journey with academic precision.

"I would give them an A or A-minus on their waste and energy goals. I give them a C on their product goals, and that would be a generous C," he says.

It is this third goal that exposes the complexity of Walmart’s supply chain transformation.

Each product sold in store depends on a network of raw materials, manufacturing processes and logistics routes.

Jon co-founded The Sustainability Consortium in 2009 to develop metrics for evaluating product impact across supply chains, but Walmart’s application of these tools has not met his expectations.

"Walmart never used that information to make procurement decisions at any scale that had the effect we were hoping it would," he adds.

The challenge lies in aligning procurement decisions with environmental data, while maintaining Walmart’s low-cost supply chain model.

Supplier engagement

Elizabeth Sturcken, Vice President for Net Zero Ambition and Action at the Environmental Defence Fund, highlights the company’s 2017 chemical footprint initiative as a turning point.

"You got very real ripple effects throughout the entire industry," she says, noting that other retailers, including Target and Dollar General, followed with similar commitments.

Environmental Working Group (EWG) President Ken Cook echoes this: "EWG is not interested in things that don't make landscape-level changes. This is what Walmart has provided."

Yet these ripple effects coexist with persistent shortcomings.

Scope 3 emissions have risen by around 4% in the last two years. Deforestation risks, packaging inefficiencies and the voluntary nature of many supplier actions continue to dilute progress.

Kathleen McLaughlin, Walmart’s current Chief Sustainability Officer, acknowledges these realities.

"We're not a perfect company," she says.

"One of the things that is pretty deep at Walmart, though, is really listening to everybody, to critics and to stakeholders. The easier things have been tackled. We're now in the throes of true system transformation and that's hard work."

Kathleen's assessment encapsulates the tension between ambition and execution that defines Walmart’s sustainability strategy.

System transformation means influencing not just the company’s own operations, but those of hundreds of thousands of partners across continents.

Legacy, leadership and the next phase

Before Lee's 2005 speech, Walmart faced sharp criticism for its environmental record. Elizabeth recalls that the company had been "a pariah" on sustainability.

Andy Ruben, Walmart’s first CSO, adds that early efforts focused on defensive tactics such as "stop legislation that was warranted about runoff on parking lots from fertiliser".

Two decades on, the shift is profound.

"These past 20 years of work that Walmart has done on sustainability has transformed a generation of business," says Elizabeth. "They prioritised and democratised sustainability."

But she also warns: "Walmart is not a sustainable company. They're falling behind in their operational goals. And they've always had a big challenge and needed to do so much more on product sustainability and their supply chain."

Current CEO Doug McMillon recognises Lee's influence.

"He challenged us to think differently about leadership and to use our influence and resources to make this country and the planet an even better place for everyone," Doug comments.

"His courage and vision set Walmart on a path that continues to shape how we serve today."

For Walmart, the sustainability pledge that began as a visionary speech now serves as a continuous supply chain audit.

Each supplier, shipment and product reflects how far the company has come and how far it still has to go.