Walmart hired a director of employee mobility to change its commuting culture

In 2019, Walmart set a target for 10% of its employees at the Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters to stop using their cars for their daily commute. After experiencing difficulty meeting that target, the company hired Kourtney Barrett, a local entrepreneur, to help meet the goal.

Cindi Marsiglio, Barrett’s manager and Walmart’s SVP for corporate real estate, told Bloomberg that this push will help the company cut its carbon emissions but also improve employee well-being and productivity. It’s also an effort to attract younger talent.

“This could be an effective way to reduce their Scope 3 emissions…employee travel is a significant part of [a company’s] carbon emissions,” said Şafak Yücel, assistant professor of operations management at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, to HR Brew after reviewing Walmart’s plan.

“This is actually the first time that I’ve seen this type of a comprehensive strategy and integrated design and an incentive package associated with it,” he added.

New HQ, new commute. Around the same time as the target was set, Walmart also announced plans for a new corporate headquarters where approximately half of employees would live within five miles, according to Bloomberg. All employees will have access to bike parking, showers, and locker rooms.

The new office park has opened, and Barrett’s job is to advocate for cleaner commuting options such as walking, biking, scooter, carpool, or public transportation, to a new campus that is more sprawling and connected to its local community through bike trails and park-like features.

“[Walmart’s plans] have positive externalities to the community, not only their employees, but also the city and the local population there as well,” Yücel said.

While Bentonville boasts a robust outdoor culture, it hasn’t permeated much into Walmart’s commuting habits.

“We don’t have a strong active-commuting culture at Walmart,” Marsiglio told Bloomberg. “We do not have the infrastructure, the programs, or the incentives to encourage you to do that—even on the loveliest days and in the best weather.”

Giving up the car. This is the gap Barrett, former chair of Bentonville’s Chamber of Commerce, was hired to fill.

Her grassroots efforts now include working with the city to increase the amount of bike lanes, setting up an biking ambassador program at Walmart, hosting lunch-and-learn events, letting workers sample e-bikes, and trying to overcome the inertia of people accustomed to traveling by car, according to Bloomberg.

“If you just try it, then most of the work is done,” she said, sharing the story of an early convert, a working mother who’s now an advocate. “She left that demo…bought an e-bike and emailed me a picture,” Barrett told Bloomberg. “Now she’s put together a group ride for her whole building, and she’s the cheerleader.”

What about the rest? In addition to the 15,000 employees in Bentonville, Walmart’s workforce extends across the country to over two million people working at its retail locations. Walmart did not respond to a request for additional information, but given the magnitude of that population, trying to reduce the commuting-related emissions of retail employees could also have a large impact.

“A 10% reduction at headquarters sounds great, but in the greater scheme of things, this is just a fraction of the workforce,” Yücel explained. “If they could do it on a broader scale, that could have a much bigger impact on the total carbon emissions, [but] introducing this type of initiative across the retail chain sounds very ambitious…[and] really difficult.”—AK