Walmart
At a Glance
Industry
Retail and Apparel
Project Type
Food and Agriculture
Year
2022
Location
Beijing
Summary
Qianqian Chen analyzed phased performance and proposed improvement solutions for a surplus food donation project at Walmart China.
Goals
Walmart China aims to build a national food banking network to accept surplus food for the country’s retail industry, in order to reduce food loss and waste across operations. This surplus food donation project has been piloted in certain stores but needed to be strategically evaluated before further expansion could take place.
Solutions
Qianqian Chen helped achieve this goal with work in the following three aspects:
- Improve the data delivery process: She reviewed and identified the potential problems in data capture, which are critical for result calculation. She also produced a manual to help increase the efficiency of data proofreading.
- Evaluate the stores’ donation performance: She analyzed the food donation data of stores, including the amount, weight, and equivalent value, identified the positive stores, and suggested methods for improvement.
- Study the calculation method of greenhouse gas emission reduction by food donation: After referring to the calculator of Walmart’s Project Gigaton and the WARM model of the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States, she conceived a classification method for more accurate calculation.
Potential Impact
The launched surplus food donation project is estimated to donate around $578,744 in surplus food from July 2021 to September 2022, equivalent to 441 metric tons of CO2 emissions offset at least. This is believed to mark significant environmental, economic, and social effects.
As a result, Walmart China can evaluate the surplus food donation project more accurately and arrange the expansion plan for the stores nationwide. Additionally, this positive outcome also helps Walmart China’s project to become the benchmark for excellent industry practices.