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Walmart got plenty of attention in 2010 when it said it would cut 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its global supply chain by 2015. The goal joined a spate of sustainability targets set as early as 2005, including Walmart’s aim to get 100 percent of energy from renewable sources and reduce greenhouse gases at its stores by 20 percent by 2012.
So, two years later, how is it doing with that? Not well, if you believe a report the Institute for Local Self-Reliance released Wednesday.
The report — called “Walmart’s Greenwash” and penned by Stacy Mitchell, who previously also wrote a series of articles on the subject for Grist — claims that only 2 percent of Walmart’s energy came from renewable sources last year. At Walmart’s current pace, it would take 300 years to reach its goal of 100 percent renewable energy, Mitchell alleges. And while Walmart has reduced the energy use of its stores built before 2005 by an average of 10 percent, eliminating some 1.5 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide annually, its new stores have outweighed those measures, adding at least 3.5 million metric tons of yearly CO2 output, according to the report.
