Wal-Mart Stores Inc. doesn't do things on a small scale. So when it moved to expand its global sustainability effort, the retailing giant acted true to form.

Throughout the logistics industry, food is one of the most demanding goods moved around the world. Statistics also show that it is also one of the most disposed products worldwide in relation to the produced quantity with 30 to 50 percent of food going to waste. The highest portion is on the consumers' side. But In the supply chain, a non-stop cold chain monitoring is the major instrument for food staying fresh and not rotting ahead of time. There are already several solutions in the field to collect data to monitor the cold chain. But most of these solutions are costly to install and to maintain and therefore only suitable for high-priced products such as pharmaceuticals. Wireless sensors that use the energy harvesting principle now overcome these challenges and open the door for a complete traceability of food at affordable costs.

Small or medium-sized suppliers looking to get their products into Walmart needn't fear the beast.

Gartner Inc. has released the findings from its 10th annual Supply Chain Top 25, and for the seventh year in a row Apple has topped the list. McDonald's took second place, and Amazon came in third.