Walmart knew it faced an uphill battle when it decided to cut 1 billion tons of carbon emissions from its supply chain. With over 3,000 diverse suppliers, Walmart can talk the sustainability talk but has to convince others to walk the walk. For this collaborative effort, the retailer engaged with World Wildlife Fund to use the resources of the largest conservation organization in the world, so that Walmart then could engage with its suppliers.

Laura Phillips, executive vice president of sustainability at Walmart, and Sheila Bonini, senior vice president of private sector engagement at WWF, discussed how the road to minus-1-billion tons is looking.

The project is a piece of Walmart’s "science-based targets" sustainability initiative, and as a whole, looks to provide resources for all types of suppliers looking to make big and small changes to be more sustainable.

"It’s not a sustainable business relationship if we don’t figure out that win-win," said Phillips, noting that Gigaton is helping broaden the conversation.

Watch the entire conversation from GreenBiz Forum 18 in Phoenix here, and find Project Gigaton's website here.

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Technical direction for GreenBiz 350 by Stephanie May Joyce.