At the CEF Gala Dinner last night, Núñez was honored for leading Walmart Brazil’s unprecedented efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest as award namesake, the late C.K. Prahalad, was recognized for his thought leadership on sustainability strategy.

More than 200 executives and sustainability industry leaders filled the Samsung Hall at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco to honor Walmart Brazil and CEO Héctor Núñez with the C.K. Prahalad Award for Global Sustainability Leadership. Members of C.K.’s family, including his wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandson were in attendance at the Corporate Eco Forum’s Gala Dinner to witness the inaugural award to recognize Walmart Brazil’s historic work to preserve the Amazon rainforest.

“Nowadays sustainability is not just mandatory – it is crucial,” said Núñez as he accepted the award on behalf of the 80,000 Walmart Brazil employees who took his vision “from a PowerPoint presentation” to reality.

In June of 2009, Walmart Brazil convened a Sustainability Summit to introduce new mandates across their supply chain to protect the Amazon. At the Summit, Walmart announced historic plans to address some of the thorniest environmental and social problems in the world. Walmart Brazil will now ensure that its supply chain uses: no companies that employ slave labor; no soybeans sourced from illegally deforested areas; and no beef sourced from any newly cleared Amazonian land. The new mandates also call for a 70 percent reduction in phosphates in detergent and a 50 percent reduction in plastic bags by 2013.

Walmart Brazil recruited the presidents of the Brazilian operations of twenty major suppliers, including Cargill, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly Clark, The Coca-Cola Company, 3M, Diageo, P&G, and Sara Lee, to sign an agreement on-stage at the Summit to meet these goals. The Brazilian Minister of the Environment and the head of Greenpeace in Brazil both spoke at the Summit and congratulated Walmart Brazil for its aggressive leadership.

“The planet works as a physical and biological system – and the heart of that system is the Amazon,” said Tom Lovejoy, the world-renowned conservation biologist who presented Núñez with the award. Lovejoy applauded Walmart Brazil’s work to curb the two biggest drivers of Amazonian deforestation -  soy and cattle operations. Deforestation accounts for approximately 70 percent  of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“By taking extraordinary action to protect the Amazon, Walmart Brazil and Héctor Núñez have carved out a place in history as both pioneering environmentalists and savvy business strategists,” said MR Rangaswami, founder of the Corporate Eco Forum. “We created the Prahalad Award to honor the companies and individuals who best demonstrate that sustainability is the key driver of innovation. We can and must do a better job of integrating the principles of sustainability into core business strategy and Walmart Brazil, under Héctor Núñez’s leadership, has proven that it is not only possible, it is also smart business.”

Núñez closed his remarks by urging his fellow corporate executives to drive progress because government solutions will take a long time to enact.

“We need to act fast to prevent greater impact from climate change… Walmart is not looking back… We’re looking forward to a better future.”

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