BY STEVE PAINTER

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Business/171514/

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. outlined plans Wednesday to rate its suppliers on environmentally friendly packaging as the company pushes to reduce waste and shipping costs, cut use of certain chemicals and encourage recycling.

The company says the goal can be accomplished without driving suppliers’ costs higher.

“Whatever we do, we cannot disrupt the financial position of our suppliers,” said Matt Kistler, vice president of package and product innovations for Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club warehouse division.

Kistler and Amy Zettlemoyer, Sam’s Club director of packaging, unveiled the scorecards at Pack Expo International in Chicago, a trade show sponsored by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute.

Wal-Mart first announced its latest environmental plans at last month’s Clinton Global Initiative, an annual conference of business, political and nonprofit leaders hosted by former President Clinton.

Environmental groups praised the scorecard initiative while urging the world’s largest retailer, based in Bentonville, to do more.

Lois Gibbs, director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, called the move “a step in the right direction,” but called on Wal-Mart to pressure name-brand suppliers to eliminate PVC plastic in packaging.

The group says PVC ruins other recyclable plastics and can release chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects and immune system disorders.

The Dogwood Alliance, which seeks to preserve southern U. S. forests that are the source of much of the packaging for commercial products, asked Wal-Mart to make greater use of recycled paper. Wal-Mart officials say they are focusing first on their private-label suppliers because the company controls those arrangements. “None of what we are doing is about mandates,” Kistler said.

However, they expect namebrand providers to improve their environmental records as well. “There will be performance goals,” Zettlemoyer said. Kistler said more than 200 Wal-Mart employees are involved in 14 “sustainable value” networks, seeking ways to reduce waste and the company’s impact on the environment. He said when company officials started talking about the initiative two years ago, they said the company’s impact could be “as great as any one business entity on the planet.” In October 2005, Wal-Mart said it intends to reduce solid waste at its U. S. stores and clubs by 25 percent in the next three years. The retailer also said it will switch from using petroleumbased packaging for edible items, instead using corn-based plastic packaging. Wal-Mart aims to reduce packaging by 5 percent by 2013 and, in the process, save about $ 3. 4 billion. “Many people are realizing that there truly is green in green,” Kistler said. Wal-Mart’s stock closed Wednesday at $ 48. 65, down 43 cents. Shares have traded as low as $ 42. 31 and as high as $ 52. 15 over the past year.