Walmart’s $2B Green Bond advances sustainability efforts
Walmart has successfully priced the company’s first green bond. Net proceeds from the $2 billion offering will go to fund existing and future projects enabling Walmart to meet its sustainability goals.
Over the next few years, the company plans to allocate an amount equal to the net proceeds of the $2 billion bond toward a portfolio of eligible green investments that meet certain eligibility criteria within the areas of renewable energy, high-performance buildings, sustainable transport, zero waste and circular economy, water stewardship, and habitat restoration and conservation.
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Walmart will release an annual public report with information on allocation to, and the estimated impact of, the eligible green investments until an amount equal to the net proceeds of the green bond has been allocated. An outside consultant has issued a second-party opinion.
The green bond is part of $7 billion of new senior unsecured notes that Walmart has successfully priced across five-, seven-, 10-, 20- and 30-year tranches.
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Leading the green bond as active bookrunners were four minority- and women-owned firms: African-American and service-disabled veteran-owned AmeriVet Securities, women-owned C.L. King & Associates, Hispanic-owned Samuel A. Ramirez & Co., and African American- and women-owned Siebert Williams Shank & Co. BofA Securities Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC also served as active bookrunners on the green bond, with BofA Securities serving as the green structuring agent and Citigroup Global Markets as diversity and inclusion coordinator.
In its recent environmental, social and governance report, Walmart noted that its suppliers have avoided more than a cumulative total of 416 MMT of CO2e (Scope 3) through Project Gigaton since the program's inception in 2017, and that it achieved a 12.1% reduction in Scopes 1 and 2 emissions, compared with the 2015 baseline. The retailer is targeting zero emissions across its global operations by 2040 without relying on carbon offsets.
This story originally appeared on Progressive Grocer.