Walmart has recently entered into two separate deals focused on sustainability over the past week: one to promote the use of regenerative agriculture, and the other on combating food waste.
Sustainable Food Business delivers the facts below.
Walmart, General Mills and Sam’s Club zero in on regenerative agriculture
General Mills, Walmart, and Sam’s Club have unveiled a joint effort to promote the use of regenerative agriculture across 600,000 acres in the US by the end of the decade. These acres correspond to the land from which General Mills sources ingredients for its products retailed at Walmart and Sam’s Club.
Funded by grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), initial endeavors will promote regenerative agriculture for various crops, notably wheat, in both the Northern and Southern Great Plains.
“We are working across our value chain on intentional interventions to help advance regenerative agriculture and ensure surety of supply for these essential food products for the long term.”
Both entities have expressed a mutual trust in regenerative agriculture’s capacity to combat climate change and foster industry-wide change. Their cooperative approach aims to inspire broader industry changes, focusing on seven US states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Minnesota.
“Through this partnership, we will work hand-in-hand with Walmart and Sam’s Club to help regenerate the acres of land in the key regions where we source ingredients for our shared business,” said Jon Nudi, group president, North America Retail at General Mills.
“We are excited by the opportunity to bring our products, including Pillsbury refrigerated dough and Blue Buffalo pet food and treats, to Walmart shelves more sustainably, with the help of our merchants and farmer partners.”
NFWF’s role involves offering financial aid to regional organizations, thereby augmenting educational resources and support to hasten the shift towards regenerative agriculture. The overarching goals encompass enhancing soil health, watersheds, biodiversity, climate resilience, and farmers’ economic stability.
John Laney, executive vice president of Food at Walmart US, stressed the commitment to providing consumers with more eco-friendly options. “This collaboration is an example of how we are working across our value chain on intentional interventions to help advance regenerative agriculture and ensure surety of supply for these essential food products for the long term,” he said in a statement.
General Mills is on track to surpass its target of promoting regenerative agriculture on 1 million acres by 2030. Concurrently, this endeavor aligns with Walmart’s ambition, in association with the Walmart Foundation, to safeguard or sustainably oversee a minimum of 50 million acres by the same year.
Diverting food waste with Denali
In another recent announcement, Walmart has renewed its partnership with Denali, a notable specialty waste and environmental services firm. With this collaboration, 4,700 of Walmart’s US stores will now be equipped for food waste recycling.
The central objective of this partnership is to divert non-consumable food away from landfills. Instead, the focus will be on converting this waste into beneficial uses such as creating compost, feeding animals, and generating renewable energy.
According to Denali, millions of pounds of food are poised to be repurposed for beneficial uses. “Walmart is a leader and innovator in making retail more sustainable,” said CEO Todd Mathes. “Denali is proud to provide services that bring Walmart closer to its goal of zero waste in its US operations by 2025.”
The above aim was detailed in Walmart’s 2023 ESG report. The company is on track to achieve its sustainability commitments: in 2022, it already achieved an approximate 12% reduction and successfully diverted 78% of its waste materials in the US last year.
Annually, Denali recycles more than 10 billion pounds of organic materials, a substantial portion of which comes from grocery retailers. Through their food waste recycling efforts alone, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is comparable to removing around 100,000 cars from circulation or supplying electricity to 60,000 homes annually.
Other methods for food recycling are well-established. Denali regularly collaborates with compost manufacturers and have 24 composting facilities to convert food waste into soil amendments. They also coordinate with local farms to repurpose certain food waste as animal feed and contribute to anaerobic digesters to produce renewable energy.
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