Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Ark., recently declared its intention to create a "packaging scorecard" to reduce packaging across its global supply chain by 5 percent by 2013. The criteria are designed as tools to help its 60,000 suppliers determine how their packaging innovations, environmental standards, energy efficiencies and use of materials match up against those of their peers. On Feb. 1, Wal-Mart will share the scorecard with its global supply chain. Later that month Amy Zettlemoyer, director of packaging for the retail giant's Sam's Club warehouse chain stores, will update the program's progress and aims when she delivers the Executive Forum's opening keynote address, "The Wal-Mart/Sam's Club Packaging Vision."
Zettlemoyer, a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., worked for Kraft Foods Inc. (where she was granted patents for her work on the DiGiorno deep-dish pizza package), Eastman Kodak Co., E&J Gallo Winery and Clorox Co. before joining Wal-Mart. She also is a founding member of the Institute of Packaging Professionals' Ozark Chapter in northwest Arkansas. She currently is responsible for packaging for Sam's Club and for sustainable packaging for Wal-Mart Inc., whose total corporate sales may exceed $300 billion in 2006.