On November 28th, China Chain Store & Franchise Association (CCFA) organized the "Focusing on Surplus Food, Building a Low-Carbon Home - Retail Industry Food Waste Reduction Forum 2022". The event was co-organized by Walmart China and held in Suzhou. Walmart China released the "Surplus Food Donation Program Phase Report" to publicize the program's achievements, experiences and total impact. The program is run by 81 hypermarkets and 17 Sam's Clubs in 8 cities, and has established 44 authorized partner distribution points. As of the end of September, 150,000 surplus food donations had been made. The total value of the donations was close to RMB 3.78 million, which is equivalent to the reduction of approximately 570 tons of carbon emissions. [1]

Christina Xiaojing Zhu, President and CEO of Walmart China, said, "Walmart has always strived to achieve the mission of helping customers live better. The Surplus Food Donation Program innovatively integrates sustainability and business operations in an in-depth manner. The program shows our local efforts to transform into a regenerative company, and benefits our community, the environment, the wider industry, as well as our stores through cost reduction and efficiency improvements. We hope that our global experience and local case study can provide constructive solutions to the industry, promote surplus food donations nationwide, and help build low-carbon, friendly and sustainable communities."

Christina Xiaojing Zhu, President and CEO of Walmart China, attends the "Focusing on Surplus Food, Building a Low-Carbon Home – Retail Industry Food Waste Reduction Forum 2022".

"Social + Economic + Environmental" Sustainability Project

In 2021, Walmart officially launched "Walmart China's Community Food Bank" Project. Currently, the project has expanded from Shanghai to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou, Kunming and Dalian. These endeavors have supported Shanghai Oasis Public Service Development Center to build 44 authorized partner distribution points to donate surplus food to families and other groups in need, including seniors who live alone, migrant workers and homeless individuals. With the implementation of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals and the "Law on Countering Food Waste" in China, more companies are expected to participate in these efforts. In the future, Walmart plans to expand the project to all stores across the country, and the nationwide donation network established with Oasis will be open to more organizations and companies to grow into a network system that can be shared and used by multiple parties.

The phase report points out that the work on surplus food donations is a sustainable development program that creates a win for society, the environment and individual companies. It also helps build a caring and friendly community that appreciates and cherishes food, cuts waste and carbon emissions in the life cycle of food, and helps optimize municipal environmental management. In addition, it helps corporates reach carbon reduction goals. As of September this year, Walmart China's surplus food donations had reduced 570 tons of carbon emissions.

At the same time, Walmart China has integrated the donation process into the daily operation of its stores. This integration saves manpower and resources required to deal with surplus food, lowers costs and boosts efficiency. According to estimates by Sam's Club, compared to discarding and reporting losses for one ton of surplus food, processing it as donations has cut work time by 50%.

The forum participants discuss the retail industry's experience on driving surplus food donations.

Walmart China as a case study of surplus food donations for the industry

On the day of the Forum, CCFA officially released the industry's first "Practical Guidelines for Retail Companies to Conduct Surplus Food Donations". Walmart China's donation model of "donor company → third-party charity organization → beneficiary" was included in the guideline as an important corporate practice case.

According to Professor Jianguo Liu from the School of Environment of Tsinghua University and Editor-in-Chief of the Guidelines, "Walmart's model is a "great circulation approach" that can be replicated, expanded, shared and sustained. We hope to systematically consolidate and summarize the successful experiences and developed models on surplus food donations by retail chains represented by Walmart China, and develop guidance from which the industry can learn and refer to as a benchmark. This guidance can help China's retail companies in reducing food waste and driving low-carbon efforts."

This April, Walmart China and CCFA formed a strategic partnership to actively participate in the "Surplus Food Donation Pioneering Project" initiated by CCFA, to jointly advocate for reducing food waste.

Multiple retail companies join the "Action Initiative to Promote the Reduction of Food Waste by the Retail Industry".

Liang Pei, President of China Chain Store & Franchise Association, said, "The establishment of the Guidelines helps standardize surplus food donation processes for retail companies, and provides a set of practical and feasible project management solutions for stakeholders. We hope more companies will participate in the "Surplus Food Donation Pioneering Project" to form an industry consensus and positively impact one another."

On November 3, "Walmart China’s Community Food Bank" Project was selected as an Annual Industry Case of the "Sustainable China Industrial Development Action" at the APEC China CEO Forum 2022. Through this project, Walmart applies its international experience to serve local communities. Walmart China responsibly delivers food, warmth and goodwill to communities and raises public awareness about low-carbon environmental protection.