Walmart’s Pledge: “Only sustainable palm oil in branded products by 2015”

Walmart Chairman Rob Walton announced that his company has committed to using 100% sustainably-sourced palm oil for its branded products by late 2015. This announcement is most impressive given that Walmart is the largest business in the world with $405 billion in annual sales. This pledge represents a win-win for protecting business and the environment, saving millions of acres of tropical forests while helping to insure that Walmart will benefit from a sustainable supply of raw materials. Particularly in Indonesia, where deforestation is the typical scenario for creating inexpensive farmland to grow palm oil, this announcement represents a highly effective non-government, non-regulatory vehicle for preventing unsustainable agriculture. The bottom line is that this voluntary declaration is as beneficial to Walmart’s future health, and the company’s continued contribution to the U.S. and global economy, as it is for the health of our planet. And given that destroying forests and forest-lands contributes more carbon pollution to the atmosphere than all of the cars, trucks, ships and planes in the world, and undermines the livelihoods of millions of indigenous and forest dependent communities, this win-win scenario has environmental and social co-benefits that are well beyond saving our world’s irreplaceable natural resources.

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