Feb. 4, 2008 - Wal-Mart has officially begun using its packaging scorecard to rate suppliers on their progress toward developing sustainable packaging. Wal-Mart buyers will use the scorecard as a decision-making tool, assessing each suppliers' ability to help the company meet its goal to achieve a 5% packaging reduction by 2013.

"It's important to us that our suppliers see the intrinsic value behind sustainability, both for their business and the environment," says Matt Kistler, senior vice president of sustainability at Wal-Mart. "It is a key responsibility of our suppliers to input new products and update packaging changes on an ongoing basis." As of January 30, 2008, more than 97,000 products had been entered into the scorecard by 6,371 vendors.

The scorecard evaluates the sustainability of product packaging based on several key metrics, including greenhouse gas emissions, product-to-package ratio, space utilization, innovation, the amount of renewable energy used in packaging production and emissions related to the distance packaging materials are transported.

Suppliers receive a score in each category and can view how they rate overall compared to their competitors in each product category. Wal-Mart says it will continue to work with its Packaging Sustainable Value Network comprised of suppliers, government agencies, academics, trade associations, and NGOs, to refine the methodology behind the calculations in the scorecard.

In January, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott re-upped his company's sustainability commitment, vowing to take action on energy efficiency, ethical sourcing, and affordable health care.