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BSR Insight | BSR and Wal-Mart Build Energy Efficiency in China

About the Author(s)

Ayesha Barenblat, Former Director, Stakeholder Collaboration

Publication Date

July 28, 2009

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For the past six months, BSR has been working with Wal-Mart to improve the energy efficiency in 200 of the company's Chinese factories by 20 percent by 2012. As a panelist at Wal-Mart's recent Sustainability Milestone Meeting, I shared the following lessons from this work:

  1. Empower people to find their own inspiration. Suppliers voluntarily participated in the energy-efficiency program with BSR and Wal-Mart providing the right tools, guidance, and resources for suppliers to improve their performance.
  2. Operate within the local context and create the right incentives. Because China has nascent, market-based incentives to encourage energy-efficiency investments, Wal-Mart created the right incentives, such as moving participating suppliers into their strategic supplier category.
  3. Ensure internal alignment. Consistent messaging from Wal-Mart's sourcing and ethical standards team to suppliers on the energy-efficiency program helped create the right buy-in and uptake from suppliers.

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    About the Author(s)

    Ayesha Barenblat

    Ayesha Barenblat, Former Director, Stakeholder Collaboration

    Topics

    Consumer Products, Supply Chain, Toxicity & Product Design

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