The chain, owner of Asda in Britain, plans to cut 20M metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its global supply chain by the end of 2015.

This is one and a half times the company’s estimated global carbon footprint growth over the next five years and is the equivalent of taking more than 3.8m cars off the road for a year.

Wal-Mart claims to serve more than 200M customers a week at more than 8,400 stores under 55 different banners in 15 countries, in the fiscal year 2010 it sales of $405 billion

“Energy efficiency and carbon reduction are central issues in the world today,” said Walmart president Mike Duke.

“We’ve been working to make a difference in these areas, both in our own footprint and our supply chain, we know we have an opportunity to do more and the capacity to do more.”

“Reducing carbon in the life cycle of our products will often mean reducing energy use.”

Mr Duke added that the chain will look at its products from the sourcing of raw materials to manufacturing, transportation and customer use or end-of-life disposal.

Luke Walsh

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