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Disaster Preparedness & Response

GRI: 3-3, 201-2
UN SDG: 11
S G | Published: May 31, 2023

Disaster: Forklift with pallet of goods

Our Aspiration

We aim to effectively prepare for and respond to disasters, with a focus on associate well-being, serving customer needs through the swift and safe recovery of business operations, and supporting impacted communities.

Key Goals & Metrics

Metrics
FY2021
FY2022
FY2023
Total global cash and in-kind donations from Walmart, Sam’s Club, and the Walmart Foundation for disaster recovery and preparedness1 >$50 million >$24 million ~$16 million
Number of days Emergency Operations Center activated beyond normal operations2 257 64 70

Relevance to Our Business & Society

Disasters and business disruptions can happen at any time. In any given year, communities face risks related to natural and weather-related disasters, including storms, wildfires, and tornadoes, whether as a result of climate change or otherwise.3 Our stores and clubs may also be affected by geopolitical events, pandemics or other contagious outbreaks, or other events such as civil unrest or acts of violence.


Disasters have a direct impact on Walmart’s business and stakeholders. They can put associates and customers in harm’s way, interfere with our operations, disrupt product supplies, compromise communications and information security, damage property and infrastructure, and result in high recovery costs. These events can also disrupt the communities around our stores and clubs. Effective preparation and response to disasters helps Walmart continue to serve the basic needs of associates, customers, and communities and builds trust in our company. Conversely, failure to prepare for and respond to a business disruption in a timely and effective manner may have a direct impact on Walmart’s ability to perform critical business functions, negatively impacting Walmart in the eyes of customers, associates, investors, media, and the communities in which we operate.

Walmart’s Approach

To enhance the resilience of our business in the face of disaster and disruption and help mitigate the impact of disaster on the communities where we operate, we focus on the following:

  • Effective governance, including policies, procedures, and executive oversight
  • Disaster planning and preparation through risk assessment, business continuity planning, training, and supporting the resilience of communities around our clubs and stores
  • Disaster response, including ensuring associate safety and well-being, swift and safe recovery of business operations for the benefit of our customers, and collaboration with community leaders to support local relief and recovery.
Supporting Our Stakeholders
Associates

Ensuring the well-being of our associates and their families

Customers and Members

Maintaining and restoring our operations to serve customers and members swiftly and safely

Communities

Helping vulnerable communities build resilience before disasters and supporting impacted communities after disasters

Key Strategies & Progress

Effective Governance & Oversight | Advance Planning & Preparation | Disaster Response & Recovery

Effective Governance & Oversight

Walmart’s disaster preparedness and management efforts are part of the company’s Global Security Program, a risk-based approach to protecting our people, facilities, information, supply chain, and inventory.


Walmart’s Global Emergency Management team oversees disaster preparation and recovery efforts. The team takes a full lifecycle approach and is responsible for preparedness, business continuity and crisis planning, emergency operations, and recovery from events such as natural disasters, infrastructure failures, man-made hazards and events, and other crises. Key functions include:

  • Enterprise Resilience Planning Team: This team is responsible for the company’s business resiliency efforts, working with the company's global business partners to identify and implement response and recovery strategies for Walmart's most critical business functions through continuous assessment of resource capabilities and risk mitigation.
  • Emergency Operation Center (EOC): The EOC serves as the central command center for preparation and response activities, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days per year. The EOC provides continuous monitoring and coordination of response for natural disasters and human-caused events that could affect Walmart associates, operations, and communities. The EOC provides a scalable and flexible response to events and can assemble its support teams either virtually or physically 24/7.

Senior executives oversee our disaster preparation and response efforts, including through the following:

  • Corporate Crisis Management Team: Advisory body comprising senior leadership and corporate functional officers for enterprise-wide emergency planning and response policy efforts.
  • Emergency Support Functions (ESF): Adapted from FEMA’s National Response Framework, Walmart groups decision-makers, responders, and resources into Emergency Support Functions. These ESFs, which include associates from our People, Operations, and Walmart.org4 teams, work together to ensure an effective and consistent response from the company.
  • Joint Business Continuity and IT/Disaster Recovery Resilience Council: This cross-functional team of corporate officers is tasked with providing thought leadership, guidance, and support on matters related to the Enterprise Business Continuity and IT Resilience programs. The Council is comprised of corporate officers from relevant segments of the company, including Audit, Global People, Legal, Compliance, and Security.

When the EOC is activated, management monitors the matter and Walmart’s corresponding response. In some instances, based upon the surrounding facts and circumstances, executive management may inform the Board of Directors about a particular matter and Walmart’s response.

Advance Planning & Preparation

Recognizing that disasters could adversely affect our business performance5, Walmart invests in disaster planning and preparedness, including risk assessments, business continuity and crisis management planning, and training. We also provide support to communities to build disaster preparedness and resilience programs ahead of disaster events, with a particular focus on communities that are prone to natural disasters and that have been historically underserved.

Risk Assessment

Walmart's Global Emergency Management team, staffed by Walmart associates with experience in law enforcement, meteorology, emergency management, and resilience planning, uses data to identify, assess, and help manage risks related to weather, environmental, public health, and security events. For example:

  • We gather information from government authorities regarding emergency declarations at the federal, state, county, and city levels that may impact our operations, supply chain, or associates. This information is made available to our business to evaluate whether action is necessary to mitigate the impact of a disaster or assist with our response.
  • We use data from previous events to anticipate customer and community needs following storms, help us determine where we may need to direct necessary supplies and personnel for potential disasters, preemptively prepare associates in the field with knowledge about available resources, and help us develop plans to maintain or quickly restore operations if similar situations arise in the future.
  • Using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center and Weather Prediction Center, we assess risks from developing events, such as hurricanes and ice storms, several days in advance of impact, so that we can start moving resources and building and implementing plans for the areas we anticipate will be most impacted.

Public-Private Collaboration

A key aspect of disaster planning and preparation is knowing the community: community and business leaders who will likely be the main points of contact and communication; local businesses and organizations that may be vulnerable and need assistance following a disaster; and the government agencies and offices that will activate during a crisis event. Establishing relationships with these stakeholders before a crisis event and including them in disaster planning efforts promotes coordinated disaster response efforts, drives information sharing, helps us to direct resources where they are most needed, and can lead to more targeted support for communities in need after a disaster.

In 2022, Walmart convened its first Preparedness Summit, bringing more than 100 representatives from corporations, governmental agencies, NGOs, and local nonprofits to Walmart's Home Office campus for working sessions on topics including disaster preparedness and technology, strengthening partnerships, the role of supply chains in disaster relief, and improving and increasing coordination and innovation in the disaster preparedness space.

Building Enterprise Resilience

Our enterprise resilience process is aligned with Disaster Recovery Institute International and Business Continuity Institute recommendations and aims to equip Walmart's business units to respond to business disruptions and crises in an efficient and cohesive manner. Our Enterprise Resilience Planning team, part of the Global Emergency Management team, facilitates this process by engaging with and training business units to implement and update business continuity and crisis plans.


The Enterprise Resilience Planning team works with company leaders to identify critical business functions that could impact Walmart's ability to operate and serve customers and develops plans designed to recover those business units and critical business functions within designated timeframes.


We regularly test our crisis/incident management plans through mock scenarios and tabletop exercises, with at least half of our plans tested each year. These exercises help us learn and identify improvements that we integrate into our plans. Walmart's Joint Business Continuity and IT/Disaster Recovery Resilience Council reviews the overall performance and provides feedback on our Business Continuity program on a quarterly basis.

Disaster: Woman working in EOC

Disaster Preparation for Associates

Our associates play a critical role in disaster planning and preparation, and they receive role-specific training in crisis management and business continuity planning, processes, response, and recovery procedures, including participating in hands-on preparedness exercises.

Walmart also offers training and resources to help associates prepare themselves and their families for emergency or crisis situations:

  • Walmart offers online training and resources to associates on how to create a personal emergency plan, which guides associates through exercises including how to set up communication plans, build an emergency supplies kit, and set a family meeting place.
  • Walmart has developed multiple methods of alerting associates who work in Walmart facilities to emergency situations at or near their work location so that associates can receive alerts via Walmart-issued mobile devices, text, email, or phone. In addition, corporate and field management associates can sign up for location-based severe weather alerts.
  • All associates are assigned training on Workplace Violence Awareness on an annual basis and receive quarterly refresher training. Skills taught include identifying and reporting concerning behaviors and protocols to be utilized in the event of an active shooter or active attack scenario. This program is designed as an awareness tool that will empower and instill confidence in associates, helping them understand “What You Do Matters” in an active shooter event.

Disaster Preparation for Customers

Because millions of customers rely on Walmart for essential products and services, we take action in our stores and clubs to keep customers informed of events that could impact their area and stock the products they may need before, during, and after an event. We also prepare our physical facilities to help lessen the impact of disaster events on our physical facilities so that we can maintain or resume operations for our customers swiftly and safely in the event of a disaster.


Examples of Walmart's disaster preparation activities include:

  • Pre-shipping truckloads of water and other needed products to stores and clubs
  • Changing TV broadcasts within stores in impact zones to show weather forecasts or disaster preparedness videos
  • Conducting roof checks and facility walks to identify and address potential damage points
  • Pre-staging refrigerated trailers and mobile generators at locations that are at risk of losing power

Disaster Preparation for Communities

While responding in the moment is important, we also aim to help communities build resilience before disasters. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation help support organizations working to build disaster preparedness and community resilience, particularly for those at risk of being disproportionately impacted.6


Example philanthropic investments in FY2023 to help organizations prepare to support communities after disasters include:

  • Expanding access to hygiene and communication services. Addressing the immediate hygiene and communications needs of affected communities helps people with critical needs in the first days following a disaster. A grant awarded to Matthew 25: Ministries will support the construction of additional mobile laundry and shower trailers that can be deployed to Walmart parking lots following disasters. With Walmart's grant support, the Information Technology Disaster Resource Center (ITDRC) is developing five new hotspot and device charging trailers that will deploy to Walmart parking lots during and after disasters to help communities and first responders connect to emergency alerts, check in with loved ones, and find recovery services.
  • Building capability of response organizations to deliver disaster resources more quickly. A Walmart Foundation grant to American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) will help disaster-focused nonprofits build their logistics and supply chain capabilities to ensure that humanitarian aid and resources reach communities affected by crisis rapidly and at a reasonable cost.
  • Building frameworks for more equitable disaster benefit access and distribution. The Walmart Foundation awarded grants to The Brookings Institution and the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) focusing on increasing access to and equity in disaster recovery benefits. The Brookings Institution grant will support research to inform how survivors access benefit resources after a disaster and to adjust the emergency management framework to better support vulnerable individuals and populations, including renters. BPC's Disaster Response Reform Task Force—a group of emergency management experts with diverse experiences from prior roles across government—will champion targeted reforms to federal disaster assistance programs to improve the delivery of critical aid to communities in crisis and foster quicker and more equitable disaster recovery.

Walmart's Multi-Year Disaster Preparedness Grants in the Gulf Region

In FY2022, the Walmart Foundation made a multi-year $3 million investment in the Gulf region in areas prone to disasters with higher numbers of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities. Concentrating these investments in the Gulf Coast allows us to test solutions and learn how we can use philanthropy to help communities build the capacity to respond to disasters more effectively and equitably. We supported two-year grants for projects including The Nature Conservancy's SUNS project (Scaling-up Nature-based Solutions), focused on building nature-based solutions to disaster preparedness; the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Disaster Management's Bridging Support for Underserved and Indigenous Communities in Landfall Disasters (BUILD) program, which arms community leaders with skills to combat systemic exclusionary practices and cultivate communities that are stewards of resilience and sustainability; The St. Bernard Project's Leader Practitioner Course, which helps government leaders more effectively deliver disaster resources to low-income, high-population communities of color; and the Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy at the Tulane University School of Social Work, which will work with 10 grassroots community organizations to help create equitable disaster response and funding plans. These projects, which are currently in their second year of the grant commitment, will provide valuable insight into community resilience that will help inform future resilience-building programs in the Gulf Coast and beyond.

Walmart also takes steps to ensure that our local store and club operators are ready to support their surrounding communities when disasters or crises occur. Each disaster response is different, and each community may not present the same needs, but Walmart is often one of the first places that community members go after a disaster. Our Disaster Response Guide for store and club operators includes information and guidance on how to prepare before a disaster event.


The Guide encourages store and club operators to build relationships with local emergency managers, public officials, and community nonprofits so that the relationships and lines of communication are already established when disaster strikes and those organizations can relay their needs quickly.The Guide also provides information on Walmart's post-disaster support resources, including activating community response tools like gift cards for nonprofits supporting recovery, planning disaster response activities in Walmart parking lots, enabling product donations to community organizations and municipal governments, and activating associate and customer support and giving campaigns.

Disaster: Water donations

Disaster Response & Recovery

When disasters occur, Walmart focuses on (1) the well-being of associates and their families; (2) recovering store and club operations swiftly and safely for the benefit of our customers; and (3) supporting impacted communities. Our response is coordinated centrally through our EOC but includes associates from a broad array of teams and on-the-ground associates in impacted areas.

Activating Walmart's EOC

Every day, our EOC fields calls and reports of incidents at Walmart's stores, clubs, and facilities around the world. In FY2023, the EOC logged more than 118,000 phone calls and recorded more than 11,000 incidents reported via Walmart's Emergency App. EOC team members assess and triage each situation, provide guidance, and coordinate support from the EOC facility at Walmart's Home Office.


When a disaster is larger in scale, we activate an expanded team of decision makers, responders, and resources in our Emergency Support Functions (ESFs).7 Associates from teams including People, Supply Chain, Operations, Facilities, and Walmart.org convene with the EOC team and work together to ensure open communications and a comprehensive and consistent response from the company.


In addition to activating Walmart's EOC at our home office in northwest Arkansas, Walmart EOC team members are often deployed to local and state EOC locations when disasters strike. The team embeds onsite with local emergency managers, government responders, and other organizations to facilitate communication between the Walmart EOC and local entities on the latest forecast and event impact information, coordination of response and recovery efforts, priorities, and support needs. Walmart first deployed one of its EOC team members into a state EOC during Hurricane Ike in 2008, and that practice continues—as it did when Walmart EOC responders embedded with the Florida EOC for more than a week when Hurricane Ian struck Florida and the Carolinas in September 2022.


After each event, the Global Emergency Management team conducts after-action reviews to identify lessons for continuous improvement. Valuable information and recommendations from after-action reviews are incorporated into our future disaster preparedness and response plans.

Establishing the Well-Being of Our Associates

Our Global Emergency Management team works with our Facilities and People teams to check on the well-being of our associates and their families and to connect them to resources they may need in the wake of a disaster.


Through OneWalmart.com, our associate-facing website, we provide recommendations and best practices for what to do before, during, and after a natural disaster or when a store experiences a security threat or other business disruption. Resources and personal and work preparedness plans and kits are available for download. Walmart provides evacuation assistance for those forced to leave their homes due to mandatory evacuation, as well as opportunities to work in nearby stores and clubs should their location temporarily close.


Real-time updates on weather and other potential business disruptions are shared with associates by email, OneWalmart.com, and through an associate hotline. The Associate Emergency Information Line provides return-to-work information and the ability for associates to request assistance. Information on this line is automatically updated and tailored to the caller’s work location.


Following a disaster, we also conduct associate wellness checks, directly reaching out to associates in the most impacted areas to assess their well-being and connect them to resources. In situations where multiple Walmart locations are impacted, this outreach could include thousands of associates, as it did following Hurricane Ian in 2022.

Maintaining & Resuming Operations for the Customer

In the case that one of our stores, clubs, or other facilities is impacted by a disaster situation, we aim to restore our facility operations swiftly and safely for the benefit of the customers who rely on Walmart for products and services.


Once we identify stores or clubs that are at risk of being impacted by a disaster, Walmart deploys teams and supplies ahead of the event to prepare for potential impacts. For example, ahead of storms, we prepare for potential power outages by staging mobile generators near facilities in the path of the storm so that we can restore power as soon as it is safe to do so. Mobile generators kept stores, clubs, and distribution centers powered for more than 8,300 hours while grid electricity was unavailable in 2022, helping to make our facilities available to customers when they needed food, pharmaceuticals, and other necessary items.


Other recovery activities include:

  • Publishing on Walmart's website which stores are open, closed, or have modified hours or services
  • Assessing properties and buildings for water damage, flooding, roof damage, or other issues, and deploying restoration technicians and experts who aim to restore our facilities to operational status
  • Assessing the safety and viability of transportation routes to facilities in the impacted area so that we can resume deliveries of products to stores and clubs, and rerouting if necessary
  • Connecting facilities to generator power
  • Designating fuel lines for associates and first responders to be able to fuel vehicles and generators

Technology & Disaster Response

Walmart has developed supply chain tools with fast simulation capabilities that enable us to model and implement rapid supply chain network changes in the event of disasters that impact our facilities. In 2022, after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, several distribution centers (DCs) and the roads connecting them to stores were severely impacted. This resulted in the disruption of food and water replenishment. Our network strategy team quickly collaborated with operations to develop a new alignment of DCs and stores for more than a dozen affected stores. They evaluated the feasibility of the plan using the simulator and implemented the new configuration within a day, successfully re-enabling the delivery of supplies to impacted areas.

Supporting Impacted Communities

We draw on our strengths as a retailer to support relief efforts. As noted above, the primary way we support communities in times of disaster is by operating our business. We work to reopen stores as quickly and safely as possible so that people can access pharmacy, grocery, and other essential products and services.


But often, communities need more than an open store or club, and we are committed to helping meet those needs. Since FY2019, Walmart, Sam’s Club and the Walmart Foundation have provided more than $105 million for disaster preparedness, response and relief efforts supporting communities around the globe. Because each disaster is unique, our Walmart.org and emergency management teams coordinate with response organizations on the ground and relay real-time information back to our EOC. We use this information to determine the level and nature of support needed, which can range from product donations (such as food and water) to fast and flexible-use gift cards to local nonprofits to enable them to immediately procure critical supplies, to major grants to relief organizations and community foundations.


For example, our support in FY2023 included using our space to coordinate services, in-kind donations to shelters and nonprofits, and cash grants to emergency response organizations.


  • Hurricane Ian. After Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm in September 2022, hundreds of Walmart stores, clubs, and distribution centers in its path were affected—losing power and suffering damage from wind and water. Many of our customers, members, and associates saw significant damage to their homes and were left without utilities and water. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation donated more than $6 million in disaster relief funding and in-kind support and used our store and parking lot spaces to stage water and meal distributions, host laundry and shower trailers, and offer free wellness and injury exams.

    As part of our $6 million commitment, the Walmart Foundation granted funds to CORE Community Organized Relief Effort and The Smile Trust, who used the investments to ensure disaster resources reached the most marginalized and vulnerable communities in the impacted region.
Hurricane Ian Response

20 EOC
coordination calls

Nearly 13,000 associates accounted for through wellness checks
 

3,800 loads of additional water sent into impacted areas

>1 million additional miles driven by delivery teams to supply stores and clubs outside of their normal service area after a Walmart distribution center suffered storm damage

>$6 million in funding from Walmart, Sam's Club, and the Walmart Foundation for recovery and relief efforts

Hurricane Ian Response
Advance through the gallery to learn more about Walmart's efforts in service of associates, customers, and communities during and after Hurricane Ian.

Hurricane Ian Preparation and Response Timeline
  • Before
    Landfall

  • Landfall
    & After

  • Days
    Following

WEEK BEFORE LANDFALL

1 DAY BEFORE LANDFALL

Leader speaks in front of people Weather map projecting the storm's path
Leader speaks in front of people Large room full of people looking at big screens with information about the storm
  • EOC begins daily situation calls and reports, including weather forecasts and actions to prepare facilities for the storm
  • More than 400 facilities are under hurricane or tropical storm warnings/watches
  • Walmart associates arrive to Florida's state EOC and stay embedded through the course of the storm

Associates

Ensure associate well-being

  • Facilities Maintenance teams conduct roof checks and facility walks in areas most likely to see wind and rain impacts from this storm
Large room full of people looking at big screens with information about the storm

Customers & Members

Restore operations swiftly and safely

  • Walmart begins airing hurricane preparedness videos and weather channels on screens and TVs in stores and clubs
  • Facilities Services pre-stages resources and mobile generators to deploy post-storm
  • 600+ additional truckloads of water and 20+ truckloads of disaster merchandise are delivered to stores and clubs in the expected impact area
  • Facilities Maintenance and Energy teams pre-stage refrigerator trailers at facilities near the landfall area in case of power outages

Communities

Support impacted communities

  • Disaster Response Guide distributed to store operators in expected impact area
  • Corporate donation dashboard launches that allows teams to request and coordinate donations for nonprofits and local organizations

LANDFALL

1 DAY AFTER LANDFALL

A satellite picture of hurricane Ian People in line to receive aid
Man standing in front of a Walmart Pharmacy trailer A Walmart Pharmacy trailer
  • Landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 155 mph; more than 200 facilities in the path of Hurricane Ian close
  • Hurricane Ian re-strengthens to a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to make landfall the following day in South Carolina

Associates

Ensure associate well-being

  • Preparations made for associate wellness checks
  • Associate wellness checks begin and Evacuation Assistance activates for associates based at more than 50 facilities in mandatory evacuation zones

Customers & Members

Restore operations swiftly and safely

  • Transportation team positions 400 drivers in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to support recovery efforts, while transportation safety teams assess routes to facilities to restart deliveries in the impacted area
  • Walmart posts a public-facing map showing store and club closures, which updates in real-time
  • 34 facilities operating on generator power

Communities

Support impacted communities

Screenshot of John Furner tweet about commitment to Hurricane Ian relief
  • Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner announces commitment of $6M to support relief efforts at governor's briefing in Florida

2 DAYS AFTER LANDFALL

WEEK AFTER LANDFALL

A lineman's truck with tree limbs on the ground A facility damaged by the storm
Tide Loads of Hope truck and trailer Worker giving away food at a Mobile Relief Kitchen
  • Hurricane Ian makes landfall near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with winds near 85 mph
  • Dozens of facilities in Florida and southern Georgia are closed, and more facilities in South Carolina close ahead of the storm's second landfall
    Map showing realigned Supply Chain and Merchandise deliveries in impacted area

Associates

Ensure associate well-being

  • Evacuation Assistance activates for associates based at additional facilities now in mandatory evacuation zones
  • Walmart's People Team continue wellness checks on nearly 13,000 associates in the most impacted areas
  • An Associate Resource Center opens at a Florida Walmart supercenter to assist impacted associates
  • Designated vehicle fuel lines created for associates and first responders at Sam's Club facilities in Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Naples, Florida

Customers & Members

Restore operations swiftly and safely

  • Walmart offers complimentary wellness and injury exams at several Walmart Health Centers
  • 33 facilities operating on generator power
  • Walmart deploys an additional 30 trailer loads of disaster merchandise and more than 100 additional trailer loads of water to impacted areas
  • With a distribution center temporarily closed due to damage, Supply Chain and Merchandise teams realign merchandise and deliveries to continue supporting stores

Communities

Support impacted communities

  • Walmart activates matching campaign in-store and online for customers, members, and associates to give to the American Red Cross in support of hurricane relief efforts
  • Walmart.org partners with Cajun Navy, World Central Kitchen, Tide Loads of Hope, Salvation Army and others to provide community support at Walmart and Sam's Club locations across impacted areas
  • Water giveaway events continue at local community organization sites and Walmart facilities
  • The Walmart Transportation Mobile Relief Kitchen arrives on site, and transportation team members serve more than 84,000 hot meals to Floridians impacted by Hurricane Ian
  • Walmart deploys 15 shower and restroom trailers and 10 laundry trailers to store parking lots in Florida
  • Hurricane Fiona. Hurricane Fiona left much of Puerto Rico without electrical power in September 2022, creating a need for mobile generators to power critical services. Walmart sourced generators and partnered with UPS to ship them to the Hispanic Federation's team on the ground in Puerto Rico. The donated generators were distributed to individuals and families with medical needs and were used to power community-based relief kitchens. Walmart also worked to get stores and clubs operating and the Walmart Foundation provided $850,000 in support to organizations helping with the Hurricane Fiona recovery in Puerto Rico and Canada.
Disaster: Volunteers with generators
  • Uvalde school shooting. In the wake of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas in May 2022, Walmart mobilized to help support the community's immediate and longer-term recovery. Working with nonprofit Family Services, which has provided human services in Uvalde for more than 20 years, we donated space inside our Uvalde Supercenter for a new Family Services clinic. In this space, individuals and families in Uvalde and the surrounding area could receive crisis support, mental health services, or other human services needs. Walmart also provided Family Services with a $250,000 grant supporting comprehensive mental health services for the Uvalde community.
  • Flooding in Kentucky. Heavy rain, flash flooding, and rising river floodwaters overwhelmed communities in eastern Kentucky in July 2022, affecting hundreds of Walmart associates and thousands of community members. Walmart, Sam’s Club, and the Walmart Foundation committed $750,000 in water, food, and funding to organizations providing relief, while simultaneously working to make essential resources like water, food, vaccinations, showers, and laundry available in our parking lots. Walmart drivers deployed our Mobile Relief Kitchen to provide hot meals to the community. Mobile showers were made available, and community members could do their laundry thanks to Procter & Gamble’s Tide Loads of Hope. Walmart also offered vaccination events in four locations, as floods can increase risks of tetanus and hepatitis.
  • Flooding in India. When flooding devastated communities in Assam, India in the summer of 2022, the Walmart Foundation (through the Walmart Foundation Disaster Relief Fund, a donor advised fund) and the Flipkart Foundation together allocated $250,000 toward Doctors For You to supply relief kits with essential food items, medicines, and hygiene-care products and offer healthcare and psychological support to the affected population. As floods continued in several parts of India, under the initiative of the Flipkart Foundation, Flipkart also activated customer and associate giving campaigns to raise funds to provide additional critical medical supplies and essential relief materials for flood relief efforts in the country.

Read more: Serving Communities

Challenges

  • While we use available data to prepare for and anticipate storms and other disruptions, these events are inherently unpredictable. Moreover, storm intensity, frequency, and unpredictability are expected to increase with climate change.
  • The primary way we serve communities is by operating our business; our success in serving communities in times of disaster and disruption is, therefore, dependent on our ability to keep operating and/or resume operations.
  • Stakeholders and communities have more needs than Walmart can meet alone, creating the need to focus on our core capabilities and collaborate to extend impact.
  • Successfully serving communities and recovering from disasters and disruptions are dependent on the engagement of associates, suppliers, and customers. Associates serve our customers, suppliers produce and distribute products, and customers contribute to relief efforts.
  • Disasters disproportionately impact marginalized communities and communities of color that tend to be both the most exposed to damages from an event and the least able to recover financially.
  • Navigating the federal emergency assistance grants process is challenging for households already struggling with limited time, resources, and access to technology.
  • National and global catastrophic events, including pandemics, can exacerbate many of the above factors.

About our Reporting

Additional Resources

Endnotes

1. Walmart's donations toward disaster recovery and relief efforts fluctuate from year to year in response to the needs of our communities and the frequency and severity of disaster events. For example, FY2021 and FY2022 numbers were substantially elevated due to Walmart's contributions to COVID-19 response causes.


2. We activate the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) beyond normal operations to respond to specific situations or events, such as a tornado, civil unrest, or a public health issue. In FY2021, this metric included increased activations due to COVID-19. In FY2022 and FY2023, the EOC did not activate beyond normal operations for COVID-19.


3. Some of the most impactful disasters—those related to weather and climate—are on the rise: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tracks that between 1980 and 2019, the U.S. averaged seven billion-dollar climate and weather disasters per year; for the time period from 2020 through 2022, the average jumped to 20 per year.


4. Walmart.org represents the combined philanthropic efforts of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation.


5. As stated in Walmart’s annual report on Form 10-K.


6. Walmart's analysis suggests that approximately 50% of communities currently served by Walmart U.S. facilities may face significant, long-term disruption from climate-related factors by 2050. Our analysis also suggests that climate change has the potential to disproportionately impact vulnerable populations, including communities of color. Read more: Climate Change


7. Adapted from FEMA’s National Response Framework

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