Regeneration of Natural Resources

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Many of the products we sell—from produce and seafood to sheets and shampoo—come from nature or depend on ingredients derived from nature. Communities also depend on nature for climate regulation, fresh water, storm and flood protection, soil regulation, pollination, and energy. Yet natural landscapes and seascapes have come under stress due to factors such as land conversion, climate change, and pollution. Stakeholders including governments, customers, communities, and shareholders expect Walmart to run our business in a way that contributes to positive nature outcomes to help reverse negative trends and sustain critical resources for the future.

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Our approach includes:

• Governing our nature strategy through accountable leadership
• Identifying, measuring, and assessing nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities based on science and feedback from non-governmental organizations, suppliers, and other stakeholders
• Fostering more sustainable production of commodities to meet consumer demand while helping ecosystems thrive
• Supporting conservation and restoration of critical ecosystems
• Fostering an enabling environment through public policy, multi-stakeholder collaborations, and philanthropic investments.

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Governance

Board Oversight

By charter, the Nominating and Governance Committee (NGC) of the Walmart Inc. Board of Directors reviews and advises management regarding the company’s sustainability strategy, which includes our nature-related initiatives. Highlights of the committee’s discussions with management are shared with the full Board of Directors.

Management of Nature Risks and Opportunities

Walmart’s sustainability team leads the development of the company’s nature strategy and works with teams across the business to set goals, develop initiatives, execute, and track progress. Walmart’s Chief Sustainability Officer oversees our nature strategy. We account for nature-related risk through our annual enterprise risk management (ERM) process.

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Identifying, Measuring, and Assessing Nature-related Dependencies, Impacts, Risks, and Opportunities

Prioritizing Ecosystems

We collaborated with Conservation International to assess our most important nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities. The assessment considered landscapes and seascapes that have a high value for nature, such as forests, grasslands, and ocean ecosystems; our product sourcing footprint⁷; and opportunities for Walmart and the Walmart Foundation to create positive impact by reducing and reversing nature loss. Based on the assessment, we prioritized the more sustainable management, protection, and/or restoration of ecosystems related to the production of 13 commodities roughly estimated to be produced across 50 million acres of land and 1 million square miles of ocean. A description of priority landscapes, seascapes, and commodities is below—along with example dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities.

Our grasslands and regenerative agriculture initiatives focus on encouraging adoption of regenerative agriculture practices and avoidance of grasslands conversion. We have prioritized engaging suppliers on row crops (adoption of regenerative farming practices across acres of soy, wheat, corn, rice and cotton), meat/dairy (adoption of grazing practices), fresh-cut floral and fresh produce (adoption of integrated pest management and other regenerative farming practices).

We also focus on water management for our Walmart operations, especially in water-stressed regions.

Our ocean initiatives aim to foster more sustainable fisheries and aquaculture through supplier engagement, industry initiatives, and philanthropic investments. We have prioritized ecosystems related to fresh and frozen wild-caught and farmed seafood as well as canned and pouched tuna.

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Fostering More Sustainable Production of Commodities

We seek to foster more sustainable production of priority commodities by:

• articulating product sourcing standards
• engaging suppliers to implement and report on more sustainable production practices at Walmart and beyond, and
• supporting the development of place-based initiatives (also known as jurisdictional or landscape-level initiatives).

Product sourcing standards

Walmart has articulated expectations regarding supplier production of certain commodities derived from nature. Expectations include avoidance of deforestation and land conversion, adherence to certain farming or fishing practices (including the use of certain certifications), and reporting. 

For More Information and Additional Policies: Walmart Policies and Guidelines

Engaging Suppliers to Implement and Report

To achieve our goal of more sustainably managing, protecting, and/or restoring forests, grasslands and oceans associated with commodity production, we encourage suppliers to implement and report progress along a “basic-better-best” continuum toward more regenerative practices (see exhibit, Encouraging Improvement Toward Best Practices) for volumes supplied to Walmart and beyond.

Products Sold by Walmart

For volumes of priority commodities sold to Walmart (e.g., palm oil, seafood, fresh produce and cut floral, private brand pulp/paper/timber, coffee, tea, cotton, cellulosic fibers), as a starting point we ask suppliers to adopt Walmart-approved certifications and report the certification status of those products. For assessing progress toward our DCF sourcing policy, we ask suppliers of priority commodities from priority regions to use specified certifications (e.g., RSPO) or—in some cases where certifications are not available (e.g., beef from Cerrado in Brazil)—to report geospatial sourcing data for validation by a third party. For seafood commodities, we ask suppliers to report on certification metrics as well as vessel monitoring through the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership’s Seafood Metrics System. We also encourage suppliers to engage in, and report on, high quality “place-based” sourcing initiatives for Walmart products (see below). 

Broader Value Chain Engagement

To accelerate widespread adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across commodity value chains, we also invite suppliers to report on the implementation of certain practices (e.g., grazing practices, cover crops, organic methods) in their value chains through our Project Gigaton Nature portal (more than 900 suppliers reported actions in FY2024). The basic-better-best acreage results reported in this brief reflect total suppliers that have chosen to report on their value chains, which may include volumes they supply to Walmart and/or to other customers.

For example, in FY2024 suppliers reported more sustainable practices in their value chains⁸ across more than 1.9 million square miles of ocean: half of that at a "basic" level (e.g., fishery improvement projects) and the rest mostly in the "better" range (e.g., MSC certified); suppliers reported a small portion in the "best" range (i.e., sourced from place-based initiatives). In contrast, 97% of fresh and frozen farmed seafood sold at Walmart U.S. and 93% of Sam’s Club U.S. private brand fresh and frozen wild caught and farmed seafood is considered "better" or "best" as they are certified under a GSSI recognized program. We aim to increase the percentage of landscapes and seascapes reported by suppliers to be adopting "better" and "best" practices by encouraging and helping suppliers move to more advanced practices.

Resources for Suppliers

We provide resources for suppliers to help move them along a “basic-better-best” continuum of more sustainable commodity production.

Supporting the Development of Place-Based Initiatives

Through supplier engagement and philanthropy, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation support the development of place-based initiatives (PBIs)—also known as jurisdictional initiatives or landscape-level initiatives. We prioritize projects that:  

• Promote conservation, restoration, and implementation of more regenerative farming and fishery practices
• Complement on-the-ground actions with public policy, advocacy, and strengthened sourcing standards
• Engage producers, suppliers and community members in dialogue to define problems, implement solutions, and measure impact.

The table below provides examples of Walmart sourcing from place-based projects. We also invite suppliers to learn about and/or engage in place-based initiatives in their value chains through the Project Gigaton Nature portal.

From FY2021 through FY2024, the Walmart Foundation funded grantees to support 24 place-based initiatives that protect, restore, and/or more sustainably manage landscapes and seascapes that produce priority commodities, such as palm oil from Indonesia, cattle from the U.S. Great Plains, tuna fisheries in the western and central Pacific Ocean, beef and soy in Brazil, seafood in Chile, and timber in Canada. For more information on recent Walmart Foundation grants, please click here.

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Supporting Conservation and Restoration

Acres for America

Walmart and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) launched Acres for America in 2005 to conserve important habitats for future generations. Acres has far surpassed its original goal to conserve 1 acre of wildlife habitat for every acre of land developed by Walmart stores. According to NFWF, Acres for America has helped fund 119 projects in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico that have:

• Protected more than 2.1 million acres
• Attracted co-funding that has leveraged Walmart’s $68.5 million investment into a total estimated conservation impact of over $1.1 billion
• Connected millions of acres of protected lands to support landscape-scale conservation and wildlife migrations that are essential to the survival of iconic species
• Provided nearly $4 million in emergency response funding to protect fish and wildlife that were immediately threatened by natural disasters
• Restored urban lands and habitats, connecting youth to the outdoors.

For more information on Acres for America, including on specific projects/places, please visit the NFWF Acres for America website, Storymap, and 2023 Fact Sheet.

Wetland Conservation

Walmart teams monitor and maintain wetlands that are part of over 330 Walmart U.S. properties (e.g., trash and debris removal, invasive vegetation management, discouraging disturbance of protected areas). From FY2020 through FY2024, Walmart invested in more than 170 wetland improvement projects on these sites.

The Walmart Foundation also invests in conservation and restoration. For example, in 2021, Walmart Foundation joined the LEAF Coalition, a public-private initiative seeking to accelerate climate action by protecting and restoring tropical forests. In 2023, alongside other LEAF Coalition members, the Walmart Foundation committed to participate in the first Emissions Reductions Purchase Agreement to support tropical forest conservation in Ghana¹¹.

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Fostering an Enabling Environment

Protecting and restoring ecosystems in ways that sustain food production and the livelihoods of communities requires action by many.

We advocate for public policies and engage with others in initiatives to accelerate progress toward our nature goals and aspirations. For example (see also Key Trade Associations and Member Organizations list):

• Supporting the development of the Midwest Row Crop Collaborative’s policy priorities report and collaborating with them in 2022 around the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s proposed Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Partnership Program.
• Engaging the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Indonesia’s government on regenerative palm oil and certification standards.
• Engaging with the U.S. Department of State in the lead up to the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) to advance Walmart’s position on the importance of a global biodiversity agreement.
• Engaging with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) on their draft framework.

For additional information on our approach to advocacy, please read Responsible Engagement in Public Policy.

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1. Acres reported here are comprised of (a) acres of land engaged in more sustainable management in the production of priority commodities, as reported by suppliers, (b) acres of land protected and/or restored, as reported by suppliers, (c) total acres of land conserved through our Acres for America program, and (d) acres more sustainably managed, protected, and/or restored through Walmart Foundation grants, as reported by grantees. For (a), suppliers typically report commodity volumes/practices through Project Gigaton, which are converted to acres (where necessary) using spatial factors found in our Project Gigaton accounting methodology (see “Nature pillar table: Spatial conversion factors” on pages 60-62). For additional information on sustainable management practices by commodity, please refer to our individual commodity reports (linked from the “Fostering More Sustainable Production of Commodities” section below).

2. For additional details on certifications/practices that map to our “basic”, “better”, “best” framework for acres of land, see Project Gigaton accounting methodology, “Nature pillar table: Mapping of certifications and practices to Basic, Better, Best framework” on pages 31-32). By way of example, for coffee and cocoa, “Basic” practices include Fair Trade certification, “Better” includes Rainforest Alliance certification, and “Best” includes credible Place Based Initiatives.

3. Supplier reporting to the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership on the certification status of seafood shipped to Walmart indicates that seafood covering 1.2 million square miles of ocean in FY2022 met at least our “Basic” level of sustainable management.

4. Previous reporting cited this as >1.4 million square miles. We have revised this to “1.5 million square miles” to align with our standard rounding methodologies, removing the greater than symbol to provide greater transparency. Supplier reporting to the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership on the certification status of seafood shipped to Walmart indicates that seafood covering 1.5 million square miles of ocean in FY2023 met at least our “Basic” level of sustainable management.

5. Square miles reported here are comprised of (a) square miles of ocean engaged in more sustainable management in seafood commodities, as reported by suppliers, and (b) square miles of ocean protected and/or restored, as reported by suppliers. For (a) above, where suppliers report seafood volumes through Sustainable Fisheries Partnership’s Seafood Metrics Platform, the volumes are converted to square miles using spatial factors found in our Project Gigaton accounting methodology (see “Nature pillar table: Spatial conversion factors” on pages 62-63). For additional information on sustainable management practices by commodity, please refer to our individual commodity reports (linked from the “Fostering More Sustainable Production of Commodities” section below).

6. For additional details on certifications/practices that map to our “basic”, “better”, “best” framework for square miles of ocean, see Project Gigaton accounting methodology, “Nature pillar table: Mapping of certifications and practices to Basic, Better, Best framework” on pages 31-32). For example, “Basic” practices include fishery improvement projects (e.g. reducing by catch), “Better” includes Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) certifications (e.g. MSC), and “Best” includes credible Placed Based Initiatives (e.g., Pacific Island Tuna).

7. Through our work with Conservation International, we identified beef production as using the largest amount of land—primarily for grazing—followed by the commodity row crops of wheat, corn/maize, soybeans, rice, and cotton, forest products like cocoa, coffee, pulp/paper/timber, and palm oil, as well as seafood commodities like tuna, shrimp, and salmon.

8. Our Project Gigaton Methodology may be found here. Additional questions/answers may be found at our Project Gigaton FAQ page.

9. 600,000 acres represents the approximate number of acres General Mills engages to source key ingredients for its products sold through Walmart and Sam’s Club.

10. Estimated by our supplier.

11. Our philanthropic support for forest conservation in Ghana and our broader engagement in the LEAF Coalition helps ensure all relevant credits are retired with the jurisdiction. We do not take title or ownership of credits and they cannot be applied to any of Walmart’s climate goals.

12. The Walmart Foundation funded philanthropic grants to help more sustainably manage, protect, and/or restore nature of $11.3 million in FY2021, $13.6 million in FY2022, $19.1 million in FY2023, and $21 million in FY2024.

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