Walmart

Walmart and Sam’s Club have a written safer chemicals policy, their Sustainable Chemistry Policy, along with an Implementation Guide for Suppliers. The policy contains three primary pillars: Transparency, Advancing Safer Formulation, and Advancing our Assortment. The policy was updated and expanded in September 2017 with new commitments and public goals, and lists the company’s sustainable chemistry principles which includes the 12 principles of green chemistry. Most notably, Walmart stated a new goal that by “2022, Walmart aims to reduce its consumables chemical footprint for Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club U.S. stores by 10 percent” which translates to a reduction of toxic chemicals by 55 million pounds. Walmart has developed a list of 16 “High Priority” chemicals and more than 2,700 “Priority” chemicals of concern that it is challenging suppliers to reduce and eliminate. The broadened policy includes a greater focus on the larger list of 2,700 chemicals, and in 2017 they expanded the list of chemicals their policy applies to by adding two new lists of fragrance chemicals of concern. The company states that: “All suppliers are expected to reduce, restrict and eliminate use of priority chemicals using informed substitution principles.” The policy encourages both private label and brand name suppliers to certify their products to credible third-party standards such as EPA Safer Choice. The policy applies to cleaning products, cosmetics and personal care products, infant products, and pet supplies, covering approximately 90,000 products and 700 suppliers. Last year the company unveiled a “Sustainable Packaging Playbook” which encourages suppliers to identify, remove, reduce, and restrict the company’s “Priority” chemicals and materials in packaging “that may present human health and environmental toxicity risks” which includes carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive toxicants, and PBTs. The company also recommends suppliers avoid PVC plastic in packaging.

However, Walmart has not developed a publicly available Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MSRL), and the policy does not appear to apply to its operations.

Walmart has multiple staff that oversee and implement its Sustainable Chemistry policy, including executive-level engagement with suppliers implementing the policy. Associates from their sustainability, compliance, and merchandising teams all work together to advance the policy. Merchants and executives drive conversations with suppliers when they use “High Priority” chemicals, discuss and ask for supplier plans to reduce, restrict, and/or remove those chemicals of concern.

It is not clear if the chemical policy is included in job descriptions, if the board is engaged in the chemical policy, or if there are financial incentives for senior management to implement safer chemical policies.

Walmart has created a detailed Sustainable Chemistry Implementation Guide, available online, to provide guidance to suppliers on implementing its policy. The company notes it has engaged suppliers through, “summits, surveys and meetings that have enabled an open dialogue through this (sustainable chemistry) process.”

Walmart has otherwise not reported on programs to audit suppliers, require supplier testing in 3rd party laboratories, or conduct its own testing to ensure supplier conformance with its Sustainable Chemistry policy.

Walmart uses the WERCSmart platform for collecting and evaluating information about chemical ingredients in consumable products. Walmart is measuring the percentage of products (by number of UPCs) with fully disclosed formulation by supplier to The Wercs through WERCSmart. Walmart states: “To capture this data, Walmart shares internal inventory data from Retail Link (a decision support system that is a bridge between Walmart and its suppliers) to The Wercs. The Wercs combines the Retail Link data with formulation data submitted by all its suppliers (for compliance purposes) into the WERCSmart system.” The company uses this information to identify Priority and High Priority chemicals in products. The company reported in August 2017 that 96.1% of Walmart US and 97% of Sam’s Club UPCs “fully disclosed” their formulations through this system.

In September 2017 the company announced they are asking suppliers to ensure contaminants of concern are not present in the final product, for example in ingredients such as petrolatum. They stated they will be asking suppliers to, “verify purity of ingredients where contaminants of concern may exist, starting in 2019” and that they will annually measure, “weight volume of ingredients, known to often harbor contaminants of concern, that are verified to meet purity standards” starting in 2019. For suppliers that are not ensuring contaminants are not present, the company will encourage those suppliers to remove priority chemicals or ensure contaminants are not present.

Walmart has continued to track and publicly report on metrics in implementing its Sustainable Chemistry policy in 2017, including reporting on the presence of and reductions of High Priority and Priority chemicals by weight, percentage of products containing CHC, and percent of suppliers selling products containing CHC for both Walmart and Sam’s Club.

The company reported that since 2014, Walmart suppliers have reduced the use of High Priority chemicals by 96% by weight, translating to a reduction of these chemicals by over 23.6 million pounds. The company noted that “a small number of suppliers used the largest volumes of all high priority chemicals (HPCs), with one supplier in particular using the majority of HPCs in only a few select products. We have encouraged these suppliers to reformulate their products to remove the high priority and priority chemicals. While we have removed 96% of HPCs by weight, there is still a long way to go before removing all HPCs, and we will continue to actively encourage suppliers to advance safer formulations.” It has also reduced the use of Priority chemicals by 49% by weight since 2014.

Sam’s Club suppliers achieved a reduction of High Priority chemicals by 68% since 2014 (by weight). However the weight of Priority Chemicals sold by Sam’s Club increased by 13% (by weight) since 2014, which the company attributed to a mix of increased sales of products containing CHC and new chemicals added to authoritative and regulatory lists.

Both Walmart and Sam’s Club reported a reduction in the percentage of suppliers and products containing CHC, however the rates of reduction are far less compared to the reductions by weight. More work is still needed particularly to address the Priority Chemicals. Walmart reported 483 million pounds and Sam’s Club reported 67 million pounds of Priority Chemicals present in their suppliers’ products.

Going forward, the company has set a clear goal to reduce the use of chemicals of concern by 10% or 55 million pounds by 2022.

Walmart is encouraging its suppliers to avoid regrettable substitution by evaluating the hazards of replacement chemicals and embracing best-in-class informed substitution and alternatives assessment principles. Their policy states, “Safer chemicals are chemical products designed to preserve efficacy of function while reducing toxicity. As part of the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, Walmart embraces use of the principles of green chemistry and encourage informed substitution to mitigate, reduce, and eliminate potential hazards associated with product formulations.”

Their Implementation Guide states: “Informed substitution is the considered transition from a chemical of particular concern to safer chemicals or non-chemical alternatives [1]. Using informed substitution principles will mitigate hazard risks associated with product formulation and achieve compliance with Walmart’s Policy on Sustainable Chemistry in Consumables…In the aim of advancing safer formulated products and promoting informed substitution, Walmart recommends the major tenets of Alternatives Assessment, a process for identifying, comparing and selecting safer alternatives to priority chemicals (including those in materials, processes or technologies) on the basis of their hazards, performance, and economic viability[1][2]…”

In its Implementation Guide, the company cites many great resources, such as the GreenScreen, CleanGredients, Pharos Chemical and Material Library, BizNGO’s Chemical Alternatives Assessment Protocol, US EPA Safer Chemical Ingredient List (SCIL), and the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production’s Alternatives Assessment Protocol. It is unclear how staff are tracking or evaluating suppliers’ use of these tools and practices.

Walmart’s Sustainable Chemistry Policy and Implementation Guide are both publicly available, Walmart’s list of 16 “High Priority” chemicals is publicly available, and its list of 18 authoritative lists that comprise their over 2,700 “Priority” chemicals is publicly available.

Walmart states that, “Walmart will create more transparency about ingredients contained in the products on its shelves by requiring all suppliers to provide full online ingredient disclosure beginning January 2015 and Walmart Priority chemicals on pack beginning January 2018. Walmart expects online public disclosure to be publicly accessible from the supplier’s website and to be displayed at the per-product level.” Walmart recommends that disclosure should include, “full disclosure of all ingredients including those typically protected under trade secrets (e.g. fragrances)” as well as “known residuals, contaminants and by-products” but does not require full ingredient disclosure for all products. The company is tracking supplier public disclosure practices through “the Sustainability Index to capture data on supplier practices regarding product ingredients disclosure online” and publicly reported on the results of this tracking online in August 2017. In September 2017 the company announced they are for the first time asking suppliers to disclose ingredients to consumers globally, not just in the United States.

In 2017 Walmart became the first retailer to evaluate its chemical footprint responding to the CFP survey. Walmart also became a signatory to the Chemical Footprint Project. The company noted, “CFP is making data available for benchmarking and gap analysis, which are critical for us to understand where our company and our suppliers are on the journey to more sustainable chemicals.” The company has not made its score or responses publicly available however in September 2017 committed to continue to participate in the CFP on an annual basis going forward.

Walmart has set a goal to certify all of its private label cleaning products to EPA’s Safer Choice program but the company has not yet reported on quantitative metrics in implementing this goal to date. In Walmart’s most recent sustainability report, the company announced it launched a line of Safer Choice certified dish soaps. Walmart’s Jet.com also recently launched a line of cleaning products, many of which are Safer Choice certified. The company has publicly committed to expand this certification to other categories as the Safer Choice program grows. In September 2017 Walmart announced they are asking private label and brand name suppliers of consumables to certify their products to Safer Choice, Cradle to Cradle (Silver or above), or EWG Verified. The company also announced they will annually measure the number of suppliers and number of products certified to one of these standards. The company stated, “we want to encourage private and national brand suppliers to lead on sustainable chemistry by leveraging third-party certifications that assess and recognize leadership in line with the principles of green chemistry and safer substitution. third-party certifications can help lend credibility and verification for how products are made, and can provide a signal of leadership to customers. For these reasons, Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club U.S. stores encourage suppliers to obtain such certifications where applicable.”

No discernible public commitment via joint announcement.

Walmart has made significant progress in improving and implementing its policy over the past year. In 2017 Walmart became the first major retailer to evaluate its chemical footprint, and in September 2017 announced a number of important improvements to its Sustainable Chemistry policy. Most notably, the company pledged to reduce its chemical footprint by 10% or 55 million pounds by 2022. The company also expanded the list of Priority Chemicals to address fragrance chemicals of concern, made clear they they expect suppliers to reduce the large list of Priority chemicals of concern, set new goals for both private label and brand name suppliers to sell more third-party certified products, and is encouraging suppliers to disclose ingredients to consumers globally.

The company has developed a “Sustainability Leaders Shop;” however, the criteria Walmart uses for this is not fully consistent with its Sustainable Chemistry policy and the online shop features some products that contain chemicals of concern. On Jet.com, the company offers a range of search filters to make it easier for customers to find products that don’t contain certain chemicals of concern such as BPA and parabens as well as products that meet third-party standards such as Cradle to Cradle. These filters are not yet available on Walmart.com or SamsClub,com so partial credit awarded.

In its most recent sustainability report, Walmart stated “To achieve safer formulations on a larger scale, we participate in a number of stakeholder initiatives, such as the Beauty and Personal Care (BPC) Initiative, led by Forum for the Future, a nonprofit organization working collaboratively to build better systems for a sustainable world. The BPC has launched an industry leadership group to address the fundamental barriers to safer and more sustainable products. To help spur innovation on preservatives, Walmart is participating in the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council’s (GC3) crowd-sourcing competition for new preservative technologies based on green chemistry principles, alongside other retailers, personal care and household product manufacturers, preservative makers and nongovernment organizations.” Walmart is also active in GC3 Retailer Leadership Council (RLC).

Walmart has invested financial resources into research into safer alternatives to preservatives of concern through the GC3 preservatives project