Once Wal-Mart announced the program, roughly 2,000 private label suppliers to the company began investigating the physical packaging they use for the products they supply to the retailer -- and then began inputting that information into Wal-Mart's system to see where they were ranked.
Wal-Mart's creation of the green packaging rating system is a significant part of a new effort by the company to become more environmentally friendly, and also to meet the demands by its own customers.
The retailer's "sustainable scorecard" system is Wal-Mart's attempt to have 60,000 global packaging goods suppliers lower the amount of packaging they use by five percent, and also use more renewable materials in addition to cutting energy usage.
Wal-Mart suppliers that change their packaging and products to meet the retailer's new "green" goals will be ranked at the top of the list. In addition, the suppliers who do not comply with Wal-Mart's new "sustainable scorecard" approach may face the possible loss of their business with Wal-Mart altogether.
Wal-Mart's detailed measurement approach will move suppliers up or down the rank in their product category -- all based on the specific changes that are made -- or that their competitors make ahead of them.
Matt Kistler -- Wal-Mart's vice president of package and product innovations -- indicated that the retailer's move toward sustainable packaging marks a change by the world's largest retailer, as they move away from choosing suppliers based solely on price.
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