Walmart Partners with Schneider Electric to Make Renewable Energy More Accessible to Suppliers

Walmart is partnering with Schneider Electric to make renewable energy more accessible to suppliers. This move is part of the retailer's Project Gigaton effort to reduce it's supply chain emissions by one billion metric tons by 2030. The initiative with Schneider Electric's Energy & Sustainability Services, titled Gigaton PPA (power purchase agreements), seeks to educate suppliers on their renewable energy options and help them through conversion — a process Walmart's Senior Director of Sustainability Zach Freeze said can be daunting for any supplier — especially small ones. Gigaton PPA aims to bridge the knowledge gap and pool like-minded, co-located suppliers to combine purchasing power. "Procuring renewable energy is complicated. It requires knowledge of things like market principles, terminology, contract structures, management risks, internal stakeholders, convincing your leadership and your finance team that it's worth making it a longer-term commitment ... So, this process is really designed to help companies that are early in that journey," Freeze said. As with many of the elements of Project Gigaton, supplier participation in the Gigaton PPA is voluntary.