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Walmart Updates Scorecard Status
November 15, 2008 By: Mark Arzoumanian Official Board MarketsWalmart’s packaging scorecard, which was unveiled two years ago this month, continues to evolve. Spearheaded by Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar, packaging director of Sam’s Club and co-manager of the Walmart Sustainability Value Network, Bentonville, Ark., the scorecard is the retailing giant’s way to both determine what packaging materials are sustainable and reduce the amount of packaging it needs to move products off its shelves (without compromising package integrity).
At last week’s Pack Expo in Chicago, Zettlemoyer-Lazar gave a keynote address before a standing-room only crowd of about 200 that focused on the scorecard’s progress. Walmart’s Packaging Sustainable Value Network, which the scorecard falls under, provides a link between the packaging industry and the company’s customers, thus helping it to achieve its sustainability goals. The scorecard was made available to Walmart suppliers in February 2007 and to Walmart buyers last February.
It serves as a tool to support Walmart’s definition of sustainability, provide suppliers and buyers with direction, and act as a dialogue stimulator to measure progress towards 100 percent renewable energy, zero waste, and the use of preferred products and packaging, Zettlemoyer-Lazar says.
Define Reduction—Anticipating questions about Walmart’s goal of reducing its packaging by 5 percent between now and 2013, she defined that reduction as by weight between now and 2013. The scorecard’s data population stands at 90 percent of items populated for Sam’s Club and 250,000 items for Walmart.
The benefits of using the scorecard include:
•Tracking progress towards Walmart’s goals;
•Quantifying packaging changes to suppliers and merchants;
•Estimating cost savings provided for packaging changes;
•Serving as a method to track category costs and use by packaging material; and
•Giving users the ability to cross reference sales by packaging change.
Data for the scorecard, which evaluates and compares packages, is readily available to suppliers, including materials used and weight, raw material shipping distances, and cube utilization. The scorecard then provides ranking through a “norm score.”
Zettlemoyer-Lazar made it very clear that the scorecard is a classic example of a work-in-progress. She also realizes that Walmart would be foolish not to look at the entire supply chain. To prove the scorecard is an ongoing project, she cited a number of improvements that will be implemented before next February, including:
•Material metrics updated per latest information;
•Distributor issue fixed; and
•Improved reporting for the merchants.
Zettlemoyer-Lazar then detailed plans to take the packaging scorecard concept international through the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), which will use global standards to ensure the most efficient and effective exchange of item information between trading partners. Besides the packaging scorecard, business benefits of using GDSN include faster speed to shelf for new items, reduced out of stocks, and lower logistics costs.
At Walmart and Sam’s Club it’s all about optimizing the packaging without compromising quality. That translates into specific package testing, which is being worked on right now, with a target to be completed early next year. The ISTA 3E test is the best available right now, Zettlemoyer-Lazar says.
By 2010, Walmart plans to put in place additional scorecard modifications that focus on recycled content values, recovery rates, country of origin, product damages, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Other Phase II tasks planned for 2010 include identifying shortcomings, articulating specific goals, and documenting information to improve access.
Walmart will be announcing additional packaging reduction goals at its Sustainable Packaging Expo in Bentonville, Ark., on April 13. These will focus on product categories, being more aggressive than the industry average, and increasing the amount of packaging recycled content.
Zettlemoyer-Lazar wrapped up by quoting Lee Scott, Walmart’s ceo, who recently said: “The global economy will turn around. But the social and environmental challenges we are addressing today will be with us for decades. Will there ever come a day when you do not want to reduce costs, be a better employer, make a better product, or be more relevant to your customers? Of course not.”OBM
