Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families launched their Mind the Store Campaign a couple of years ago.
The campaign targeted big box retailers in the U.S. to phase out of products that contain harmful chemicals. They recently published a scorecard on retailer actions to eliminate harmful substances. The NGO evaluated retailers in 13 categories, which included policies, a commitment to transparency and public disclosure, and the reduction of chemicals within the past three years.
Companies were given a score out of a maximum of 130 and a corresponding grade from A to F.
How the retailers scored?
The 11 retailers could be bucketed into 3 categories.
- Walmart, Target and CVS scored B, B, C respectively. Walmart has achieved 95% reduction by weight of 16 high priority products in personal care and cleaning products, whereas Target has adopted a list of 2000 chemicals that should not be present in products sold on its shelves.
- Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowes, Walgreens and Kroger scored between C- and D-. These retailers are developing safer chemicals policies and both Home Depot and Lowes have agreed to eliminate phthalates from vinyl flooring, but the lack of transparency was apparent.
- Albertsons, Costco and Amazon all scored an F. Clearly there was minimal effort in developing policies to manage chemicals and replace hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives.
Recommendations from Safer Chemicals Healthy Families
- Adopt a safer chemicals policy to drive reduction and substitution of toxic chemicals in products
- Publically disclose all product ingredients to honor consumers “right to know”
- Promote and defend third party safer product standards that mark clear progress
Why is this important?
- Science is showing that exposure to small amounts of chemicals can cause harm
- Consumers are questioning what chemicals are in their products
- Retailers and manufacturers are taking a closer look at what goes into the products they buy and place on their shelves
Impacts to your business?
Questions to consider:
- Do you have a chemicals management commitment?
- How transparent is your company?
For help with any issue associated with chemicals, contact Amanda Cattermole at (415) 412 8406 or Amanda@cattermoleconsulting.com. We can help you develop powerful solutions to protect your company and brand reputation and result in safer products manufactured in cleaner supply chains.
Tips and Insights contains information to help you make informed chemical management decisions. Each post highlights a particular topic and includes questions you may want to consider for your business.