Johnson Controls : partners with Walmart to promote sustainability

Retailer's Project Gigaton aims to reduce emissions with help of suppliers

Retail giant Walmart has invited suppliers including Johnson Controls to join its latest sustainability initiative, Project Gigaton. The company launched the program at a summit held at its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters on April 19, 2017.

Catherine Potter, director of Global Sustainability, Johnson Controls, participated in the event. She said Johnson Controls will be involved in two key pillars of Project Gigaton, energy efficiency and recycling.

'Part of helping our customers succeed includes collaborating on shared environmental and community results,' Potter said. 'We are proud to work with Walmart to improve and scale energy efficiency and recycling.'

According to Potter, Johnson Controls is driving continuous energy savings through its Energy Hunt program, which is embedded in the Johnson Controls Manufacturing System. The global program has been a success, she said, identifying three times more energy savings projects, as compared to the previous year. The savings is equivalent to the annual energy use of 3,200 single-family homes in the United States.

'Part of helping our customers succeed includes collaborating on shared environmental and community results. We are proud to work with Walmart to improve and scale energy efficiency and recycling. -- Catherine Potter, director of Global Sustainability, Johnson Controls

Potter noted that Johnson Controls, already the world's largest recycler of conventional vehicle batteries, plans to continue to improve recycling rates while also sharing best practices on closed loop recycling and circular economy with its stakeholders.

Johnson Controls supplies automotive and lawn equipment batteries sold through Walmart.

Through Project Gigaton, Walmart is committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from its operations and supply chains. This initiative will provide an emissions reduction toolkit to a broad network of suppliers seeking to eliminate one gigaton of emissions, focusing on areas such as manufacturing, materials and use of products by 2030. That's the equivalent to taking more than 211 million passenger vehicles off U.S. roads and highways for a year.

'We are proud of the improvements we've made in reducing our own emissions, but we aim to do more. That's why we're working with our suppliers and others on Project Gigaton,' said Kathleen McLaughlin, senior vice president and chief sustainability officer for Walmart.