Walmart, a world leader in sustainability, announced Thursday, July 16, an
investment that reaffirms its commitment to incorporating sustainable business
practices throughout the entire consumer business supply chain. Through a
revolutionary move, Walmart is helping create a consortium of universities,
jointly administered by the University of Arkansas and Arizona State University.
Walmart's initial investment will be dispersed equally to Arizona State
University and the University of Arkansas; this partnership will conduct the
development of a science-based, open source, product lifecycle assessment that
will provide scientific innovations that lead to a new generation of sustainable
products, materials and technologies.
l-r: Jay Golden, Arizona State University; Mike Duke, Walmart President
and CEO; Jon Johnson, University of Arkansas |
Through a collaborative process, Sustainability Consortium members, comprised
of universities that will collaborate with businesses, non-government
organizations (NGOs), and governmental agencies, will design and develop a
sustainable product index for consumer products. This index will quantify the
sustainable attributes of a product by examining them from raw materials to
disposal.
Walmart officials emphasize that their intention is not to "own" the index
and consider its strength in success to be its design as a globally shared and
open platform tool. The index will drive innovation, highlight opportunities for
cost savings and waste reduction and create a common playing field for all.
Further, the consortium will be able to track how the index is reducing
environmental impacts and driving innovation and green jobs.
"Developing indices to reliably compare products on their environmental
performance, in addition to an open-source database to support this, is a key
step in the transition to a green economy. The EPA is very interested in this
project and will follow it closely," said Clare Lindsay of the U.S Environmental
Protection Agency's Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery.
"I feel a great sense of pride today as the first stage of our journey
begins," said Jay Golden, co-director of the Sustainability Consortium. "Today
an idea has come to reality, and it is even more exciting to envision the
outcomes of the next part of this effort, as we create the science, technologies
and strategies that vastly transform how businesses operate and how
sustainability is infused into our everyday life."
The Sustainability Consortium is jointly directed by Jay Golden of the Global
Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University and Jon Johnson of the
Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas.
"Through the Sustainability Consortium, the University of Arkansas has a
unique opportunity to influence the creation of a tool that will improve the
decision-making abilities of consumers around the world," said Johnson. "We will
essentially be conducting research that enables customers to make informed,
personal choices about the products they choose to use. Sustainability is,
universally, a top priority, and our institution looks forward to working with
other leaders in the field to make a visible difference. Arizona State
University and the University of Arkansas are committed to leading an effort
that will change the way people view their impact on the environment."
"We are at the beginning stages of something great," said University of
Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart. "This initiative will transform the way
product value is measured, and I am very pleased that the University of Arkansas
is playing a significant role in the growth and progress of sustainable
practices."
At the core of its charge, the Sustainability Consortium will develop
scientifically grounded tools to create life-cycle inventories and analysis for
thousands of products that are manufactured and used in geographies around the
globe. This transparent database will eventually allow retailers and consumers
the ability to examine one product against another in a variety of areas. The
analysis will factor standardized data beginning with the acquisition of the raw
materials, the manufacturing process and distribution channels, consumer use and
post-use.
Additionally, the consortium will provide decision and policy makers with a
broader understanding of how new and innovative organizational strategies and
technologies can assist in meeting various environmental, economic and national
security goals.
"As one of the world's largest corporations, Walmart is a proven and
effective change agent in the movement toward a more sustainable future. By
recognizing the necessity and power of broad, multisector, global collaboration,
this scientific-based index will ultimately transform the consumer market as we
know it today - from product source through disposal, from supplier to buyer -
it is a transcendent model of doing good and doing well," said Rob Melnick,
executive dean of ASU's Global Institute of Sustainability.
About the Sustainability Consortium and co-Directors Jay Golden and Jon
Johnson:
The Sustainability Consortium is a partnership of researchers from leading
global universities, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and
governmental agencies. The consortium's initial goal is to establish credible,
transparent and user-friendly scientific standards to measure the sustainability
of consumer products.
Jay Golden is an assistant professor in the School of Sustainablilty and a
faculty affiliate in the department of Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable
Engineering in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State
University. Jon Johnson is the Walton Professor of Sustainability and director
of the Applied Sustainability Center in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at
the University of Arkansas.
For more information about the Sustainability Consortium, visit:
www.sustainabilityconsortium.org; for a list of the Consortium's corporate,
non-governmental organizations and agency partners, visit:
www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/partners.
About the University of Arkansas and its Applied Sustainability Center:
The University of Arkansas is at the forefront of research that looks at how
retail commerce can be made more affordable and sustainable. From RFID research
to transportation logistics, the university's work contributes to cost savings,
waste reduction and long-term sustainability. Visit the university's
sustainability Web site here:
http://sustainability.uark.edu/.
The Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas leads
organizations in the retail and consumer goods industries toward sustainable
practices that support an economy built around people, planet and profit. This
is accomplished by solving complex problems, providing expert guidance,
brokering problems and solutions, and by sponsoring research. The center is part
of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and serves multiple disciplines across
campus.
For more information about the Applied Sustainability Center, visit:
http://asc.uark.edu.
About Arizona State University and its Global Institute of Sustainability:
ASU has a vision to be a New American University, promoting excellence in its
research and among its students and faculty, increasing access to its
educational resources and working with communities to positively impact social
and economic development. Further, ASU is a public institution where
sustainability is a fundamental precept underlying its teaching, learning,
research, and business missions; it seeks to create meaningful change by
producing knowledge resulting in solutions to global problems of sustainability.
The Global Institute of Sustainability is the hub of ASU's sustainability
initiatives. The Institute advances research, education and business practices
for an urbanizing world. Its School of Sustainability, the first of its kind in
the U.S., offers transdisciplinary degree programs that advance practical
solutions to environmental, economic, and social challenges. For more
information about the Global Institute of Sustainability, visit:
http://sustainability.asu.edu. Follow us on Twitter at
asuGIOS_SOS.
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