Wal-Mart

Read Full Story US-based global retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc has given its suppliers five years to comply with its environmental rules or risk being pushed off its shelves. The new requirements, announced in China where Wal-Mart has more than 20,000 suppliers, will compel them to improve on energy efficiency, waste reduction and other markers on the retailer’s checklist. Wal-Mart said the checklist, introduced in 2009, was voluntary. But if suppliers fall short, they could be cut off from the discount stores wholesale warehouses that the company operates in the United States.

Over fifty countries and 86 private companies have joined forces behind the move to factor the value of natural assets like clean air, clean water, forests and other ecosystems into business decision-making and countries systems of national accounting. Fifty-seven countries and the European Commission are supporting a communiqué that calls on governments, the UN system, international financial institutions and other international organizations to strengthen the implementation of natural capital accounting around the world.