Walmart Canada

Walmart Canada
2009–2011 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report/Microsite

The CSR Report is a vital channel for corporations looking to seriously engage stakeholders on cornerstone issues like sustainability. It's an opportunity to articulate the company’s core goals – and the steps they take to achieve them. I work with mega-retailer Walmart Canada and their agency to tell their CSR stories from a neutral, balanced perspective – interviewing key people, organizing the content flow and writing a series of editorial stories to highlight their progress.

excreptclick here for text excerpt

The Balzac story: Sharing fresh thinking on sustainability

Since its 2010 launch, the story of innovation at Balzac is inspiring greater action on sustainability throughout the retail and food services industry. There’s a push on across Canada to adopt more sustainable technologies, responsible construction practices, environmental building design, and strive for operational excellence.

Located about 15 miles north of Calgary, Alberta, the Balzac Fresh Food Distribution Centre is one of Canada’s largest refrigerated buildings at 400,000-square-feet. This first-of-its-kind facility serves as a primary hub for fresh and frozen food destined for 104 Walmart stores across Western Canada. Balzac is run by third-party logistics provider SCM (Supply Chain Management Inc.) with a 600-strong workforce.

Built to exacting environmental standards, Balzac is a living lab of sustainable building practices in virtually every facet of its design, construction and operations. The facility is piloting an array of leading-edge technologies like hydrogen fuel cells to power our fleet of forklift trucks, solar-thermal panels to heat water, wind power to generate electricity, and LEDs for general overhead lighting.

Now into its second full year of operation, Balzac is already proving Walmart Canada’s business case for how sustainable excellence can drive ROI:

Leading by example

But our goal with Balzac is not just about reducing our environmental footprint or trimming operating costs. It’s about inspiring fellow retailers and businesses to realize the benefits and take more action themselves.

“Balzac demonstrates that there’s no need to wait for sustainability,” says Virginia Garbutt, Walmart Canada’s Director of Strategic Network Planning and Improvement. “The technology solutions are here and ready to put into practice. We believe this facility showcases the immediate returns of investing in green innovations and the positive impact of a sustainability mindset.”

With this goal in mind, our project principals have engaged a wide audience of business and community leaders on the local, national and international front to share the Balzac story and present a compelling blueprint for change…

Note: Continue the story at walmartcsr.ca