HSBC and Walmart Join Forces on Sustainable Supply Chain Finance Programme

HSBC and Walmart today announced the roll-out of a sustainable supply chain finance programme that pegs a supplier’s financing rate to its sustainability performance.

This global programme allows Walmart’s suppliers who demonstrate progress in Walmart’s Project Gigaton or Sustainability Index Program to apply for improved financing from HSBC based on their sustainability ratings.

Project Gigaton is a Walmart initiative to avoid one billion metric tons (a gigaton) of greenhouse gases from the global value chain by 2030 through supplier commitments. Walmart’s Sustainability Index Program gathers and analyses information across a product’s life cycle, and was developed by The Sustainability Consortium (TSC), a global organisation dedicated to improving the sustainability of consumer products, to help Walmart benchmark suppliers and encourage continuous improvement.

HSBC believes that supply chains are one of the most important levers for banks and businesses to create a positive effect on the world. According to McKinsey, a typical consumer company’s supply chain creates far more social and environmental costs than its own operations, accounting for more than 80% of greenhouse-gas emissions and more than 90% of the impact on air, land, water, biodiversity, and geological resources.

Being sustainable is seen as very important by businesses around the world. According to the recent HSBC Navigator survey, 81% of global companies say ethical and environmental sustainability is important to them and 83% aspire to be a genuinely ethical or environmentally sustainable company. Also, improving sustainability outcomes is among the top three objectives for making supply chain changes.