INDUSTRIAL

ECOLOGY
REPORT
Crafting Sustainable Practises
Executive Summary

1
When Sam Walton started Walmart 54
years ago, little did he know that he was on
the path of changing the face of the retail
store industry. Yet the foundations of a sus-
tainable industrial ecology that we practise is
as strong as ever. In this report we would like
to showcase the steps that we have crafted
to maintain a strong and sustainable industrial
ecology practise that we implement in our
factories, farms and stores with utmost ded-
ication. Our inhouse processes such as sus-
tainability score and life cycle assesment have
aided to diminish the negative impact on the
environment at the grassroot level as well as
at the retail one.

Executive Summary | 2
CONTENTS
Contents

3
Executive Summary 2

The Walmart Ecosystem 6

Products and Sustainability 8

A Sustainable Profit 11

Conclusion 13

Table of Contents | 4
 Currently, when products wear out or are replaced by
newer models, they are usually thrown away.
The Walmart Ecosystem

An Overview ties come from the continued,

sustained application of existing
Industrial ecology is the
technology to identified problems.
study of industrial systems
The primary need is to create the
(materials and energy flows)
incentives and techniques for
from the perspective of natu-
companies to use technology and
ral ecosystems. Natural eco-
knowledge to improve environ-
systems have evolved so that any
available source of useful material
mental quality. Human economic The primary op-
activity has been characterized by
or energy is used by some organ-
an open and linear system of ma- portunities come
ism in the system. Animals and
plants live on each other and on
terials flows, where materials are from the contin-
each others waste matter. These
taken in, transformed, used, and ued, sustained
thrown out. Tools, clothing, and
systems do, of course, leave some
other products have been forged
application of
waste materials, or fossil fuels
and fashioned from natural plant, existing technol-
would not exist. But on the whole,
the system regulates itself and con-
animal, and mineral. ogy to identified
Worn-out goods and materi-
sumes what it produces. As the problems.
als left over from the production
green game is played out in corpo-
process have been dumped in
rate boardrooms, the shop floor, in
backyards and landfills. Even
the home, and in the community,
archaeologists find discarded
it is clear that technology and
reminders of the past: scrap stone,
engineering will continue to play
flints, and potsherds - in the rub-
a critical role in reducing many
bish dumps of the Neolithic peri-
environmental impacts of produc-
od. People moved to new habitats
tion and consumption.
when the old locations became
Neither technology nor tech-
unsuitable because of accumulated
nological know-how are in short
wastes.
supply. The primary opportuni-

The Walmart Ecosystem |6

 to influence designers of manu-
facturing processes. Designers of
products are beginning to view
their creations as transient embod-
iments of matter and energy with
added value that can be recaptured
and recreated within a continu-
ing flow of materials extending
beyond the point of sale. Products
and the materials they contain are
being designed so that they can be
reused at the end of their lives.
The whole industrial process
Walmart ships majority of its goods from Asia can be thought of as a closed cycle
in which the manufacturer has
The Walmart Story improving energy-use efficiencies. overall custody for the material
Automobile manufacturers such used. In this system, the manu-
One way for industry to be
as BMW and Volkswagen have facturer must consider the entire
more self-sufficient and less
designed cars for easy disassembly material and energy stream, from
wasteful is to improve the
and recycling. Companies such materials input and manufactur-
efficiency of materials use.
as Hewlett-Packard, Canon, and ing through the life of the product
It seems worthwhile to examine
Xerox have begun to take back and its eventual reuse or disposal.
both production processes and
their own used components, such This concept has begun to be
product designs to see if the use
as toner cartridges, and to manu- embodied in law (as in Germany),
of materials (and energy) can be
improved. Currently, making manufacturers

when products wear out Designers of products are responsible for their
or are replaced by newer beginning to view their creations products through to
models, they are usually as transient embodiments of final disposition.
thrown away. They may Product materials some-
matter and energy
be used as landfill or times contain unwanted
be incinerated or they tramp elements. These
may also litter the landscape with facture new ones using refurbished contaminants can ruin the reuse
the waste. Regulatory pressures components and recycled materi- potential of the materials or make
and shifting public opinion als from the old ones. These com- handling difficult or dangerous,
have spurred the industrial and panies are designing new products and purification is often problem-
engineering community to initiate with reuse, remanufacture, and atic. Products are redesigned for
efforts aimed at closing the ma- recycling in mind. The industrial newer more cyclical material use.
terials loops more effectively and ecology perspective is beginning

7 | The Walmart Ecosystem

Products and Sustainability

Life Cycle Assesment economic barriers, information legal barriers. The suitability of a
barriers, organizational obstacles, material for an intended reuse is
Metal goods, their com-
regulatory issues, and legal con- a key technical concern. Metals,
ponents, and other metal
cerns. When recycling is technical- metal compounds, and organic
products, especially those
ly feasible, it may be economically materials make up a large fraction
made of iron and steel, have a
unsound. When it is technically of industrial products. The metals
long history of being recycled
and economically satisfactory, a are relatively easy to reprocess and
without regulatory prodding.
lack of information may block its reuse. In many cases, however, or-
For other metal products and
adoption into the process. ganic materials are best thought of
materials, progress has come later
as energy stored in chemical bonds
and been much slower. Why is
Manfufacturing Strategies rather than as reusable materials v
there so much waste, especially of
Even when the requisite The choice between recycling
iron, steel, and precious metals, in
information is at hand, the material and burning it as fuel
the metal industry, which has such
organizational problems can or otherwise extracting its chem-
a long tradition of recycling? The
still stymie implementation. ical energy might be made on
barriers to industrial recycling of
Finally, when all else is satisfactory, the basis of comparative market
metals can be classified into six in-
a recycling scheme can founder on values. As products are redesigned
terrelated areas: technical hurdles,
the rocks of regulatory or other for newer more cyclical material

One of several Walmart factories Every product from Walmart gets a Sustainability Score

Products and Sustainability | 8

 Walmart aims to improve their sustainable ecology practise at the grassroot level such as farms.
generally wants to separate things
into their original components
and materials. There are costs
involved in collecting, sorting, and
transporting used-up products,
scrap, and waste. Such separation
requires information, effort, and
energy, which must all be paid
for. These costs must be compared
with the costs of new materials.
Even when the operating costs
of recycling are attractive, capital
costs may pose barriers.
Heavy capital investment in
existing systems may prevent a
company from securing an easy
source of new investment to start
9 | Products and Sustainability
over. This obstacle may introduce
a time lag, postponing the deci-
sion to recycle until it is suitable
to make a capital investment, such
as when the machinery requires
change for some other reason.
Sustainability Score
Some companies that face
competitive forces of ev-
er-shorter product lifespans.
Those in the electronics industry,
have introduced design for the
environment techniques as a ma-
jor impetus for reengineering their
products and processes. The cost
of eliminating or reusing certain
materials must be balanced against
the cost of disposal. Disposal costs
bring up the question of how
companies should take account of
indirect costs such as the effect of
wastes on the environment. These
issues have generally been handled
by regulatory control of emis-
sions but could equally be dealt
with by including the costs of
environmental damage in a firms
bookkeeping. The bookkeeping
approach would provide an incen-
tive to minimize such costs, and
it might force a truer comparison
of the costs of alternative schemes.
However, it has proved very diffi-
 10 30

Designers generally
have no idea what 2010
waste problems
will be posed by
60
manufacturing with
different materials.

31
cult to find suitable, agreed-upon 29
measures for such costs. The
requisite information about costs
is not usually available to everyone 2012
in the firm who might be able to
use it to good advantage. Standard
management and other accounting
systems often do not track costs in
a way that is useful to designers. 33
Design engineers may not know
of the real costs to the company of 10
the materials they choose. wwww
65
The internal organization of a
firm can be difficult to change.
Changing the whole concept of
a product or adding new criteria 25 2014
for environmental compatibility
to the design process may not
fit the ideas on which the firm
operates or its internal incentive
system. The business structure
may make perception and solution
of problems that cross organi- Percentage of food materials recycled
zation lines very difficult. For Percentage of semi recycled materials

Percentage of wasted food materials

 no means an easy feat. Yet with
our partners and our custom-
ers effort we are on the road to
becoming the world leaders in
sustainable industrial ecology.

A Sustainable Profit
Handling Supply Chain appears to explain why firms often
choose to dispose of scrap and
Management
waste rather than seek users for
Under current legal practice, them. The following example from
liability considerations for a glassmaker is illustrative. Never-
a hazardous material often theless the glassmaker disposes of
favor its disposal over its sale these wastes in a landfill, because
or transfer for reuse. Liability is the legal counsel worries about
often targeted at the original seller
potential liabilities. Such liability
of any material used in a product
risks are hard to predict and quite
implicated in a damage suit, even
unacceptable in comparison with
if the material has been reused and
the more predictable liabilities
remanufactured by several parties
related to landfill disposal.
en route to that final product.
Some firms have already
The trail of potential liability
begun to design their products
can be so long and so unpredict-
and processes with a view to
able as to be thoroughly unpal-
closing material loops as much as
atable. A supplier of a generally
possible. However, if a product
harmless, minor component
is the transient embodiment of
material in a product might be
materials (a plastic water bottle for
assessed high liability damages
example), then closing the loop
because the product caused harm,
on those value-added materials
even if that supplier was not a
raises an important question for
party to the product design and
the firm: Is the product simply the
the material was not at fault. This
hardware being sold, or is it rather
practice has serious implications
the services it can provide ?
for commerce generally, and it

Traditional and eco friendly methods are

11 | A Sustainable Profit followed by our farmers and industrial-
ists alike.
 A product is generally sold with the assumption
that a consumer or sequence of consumers will
use it until it cannot be used anymore.
Conclusion
Walmarts Future it back for remanufacturing, the
length of time the product spends
Industrial ecology views
in the customers hands becomes
industrys impact on the envi-
an adjustable design variable.
ronment in terms of a com-
prehensive system that uses
and disposes of materials. We What you can do
can learn to close the materials We can forgo the benefits of a
loop more efficiently by thinking potentially harmful material
on a larger scale about the flow
or we can seek to replace it
back into industry of materials
with a more safer option. We
that would otherwise be discarded
into the environment. There are
can redesign products with the We can forgo the
intention of reusing materials and benefits of a poten-
numerous means of protecting
the environment from industrial
components. It is not yet clear tially harmful mate-
wastes. There was a time when
what mix of remedies will most rial or we can seek
economically minimize the impact to replace it with a
it was common practice to lease
of industrial materials on the
rather than sell many products more safer option
surrunding environment.
outright. Designing a product as
The various possibilities hold
a temporary provider of a service,
out great promise, but there are
to be used later in the creation of
complex problems and barriers to
another product, is a novel idea in
be overcome as we develop and
modern manufacturing and raises
implement a new, ecologically
a new set of issues. A product is
sound model for the management
generally sold with the assump-
of materials in industry.
tion that a consumer or sequence
Walmarts persistent and meth-
of consumers will use it until it
odological pursuit of this balance
cannot be used anymore. If the
between nature and machine is by
manufacturer thinks about taking

13 | Conclusions