Lowe’s

Lowe’s has made progress by restricting various chemicals in recent years and its most recent sustainability report stated for the first time that “in 2018, [the company] will develop a comprehensive chemical policy.”

However, as of the writing of this report, Lowe’s has no public written safer chemicals policy, has not set public quantifiable goals for reducing and eliminating chemicals of high concern and does not have a publicly available Beyond Restricted Substance List (BRSL) or publicly available Manufacturing Restricted Substance List (MRSL).

A corporate manager has explicit responsibility for product safety related to chemical hazards in products. In its most recent sustainability report the company announced “In the U.S., Lowe’s corporate responsibility and sustainability matters are overseen by the vice president of corporate responsibility, who reports quarterly to the public policy committee and regularly to the corporate administration executive, a direct report to the CEO. Additionally, our sustainability team meets quarterly with our Sustainability Steering Committee — chaired by the chief operating officer and four senior executives. They also meet monthly with our Product Stewardship Council, consisting of vice presidents and directors from more than 14 functions across Lowe’s. Our Canadian director of corporate responsibility reports to the senior vice president of communications, public affairs and compliance, who is a direct report to the CEO of Lowe’s Canada and Lowe’s International.”

They also noted that the board “public policy committee is responsible for overseeing Lowe’s sustainability and corporate responsibility programs and communicating associated risks to the board” and that the “Lowe’s board of directors or committees of the board review the following corporate responsibility topics at least once per year: responsible sourcing, sustainable consumer products, environmental protection and sustainability.” Partial credit is awarded since the company has yet to develop a safer chemicals policy.

It is not clear if there are financial incentives for senior management to implement safer chemical policies.

In its most recent sustainability report Lowe’s stated the company “actively governs products where Lowe’s is the importer — through audits, testing and inspections. Our QA team is responsible for monitoring product safety, quality and customer satisfaction. Annually, Lowe’s authorized third-party laboratories conduct product and transit/packaging tests to verify compliance with applicable industry standards or state and federal regulations. The third-party labs also conduct consumer testing and provide us with product test reports, which Lowe’s uses to inform product offerings and sourcing decisions.” They go on to say “We also use third-party labs to ensure our residential vinyl flooring products are free of ortho-phthalates and ensure formaldehyde content complies with maximum acceptable levels in laminate, hardwood and engineered wood flooring products. ”

The company also conducts annual testing for wood flooring (laminate/composite wood and bamboo) to ensure compliance with both CDPH 1350 for VOC’s and CARB requirements for formaldehyde nationally. The company notes, “when there are state-specific regulations on chemical composition, we test to ensure national compliance.” They state, “in 2016, more than 13,000 product tests were conducted in 87 third-party labs around the world. The Quality Assurance team also works closely with third-party agencies to conduct pre shipment product inspections prior to acceptance by Lowe’s. Products are inspected for proper labeling, functional operation and consistency across production samples to help ensure customer satisfaction. In 2016, factories were visited nearly 11,000 times to perform these pre shipment product inspections.”

The company has, however, not specifically disclosed initiatives to audit or train suppliers to ensure supplier conformance with its initiatives around chemicals. Partial credit is awarded since Lowe’s does not have a safer chemicals policy.

In last year’s sustainability report the company stated “by better understanding the chemicals in our products, we can seek safer alternatives without sacrificing quality, efficacy or affordability” but did not describe how they collect information about chemicals of concern in products.

In 2018 Lowe’s demonstrated impressive leadership by becoming the first major U.S.-based retailer to announce a global ban on the sale of paint strippers containing methylene chloride and NMP in all of its stores. Lowe’s has stores in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. This helped spur a major ripple effect among other large home improvement, paint, and big box retailers who joined the market shift away from toxic paint strippers.

In its most recent sustainability report, Lowe’s stated it “continues to focus on phasing out… neonicotinoid pesticides, formaldehyde, ortho-phthalates and VOC paints from our product portfolio.”

In 2015 Lowe’s was the second major U.S. retailer to work with suppliers to eliminate all ortho-phthalates in residential vinyl flooring, one of the largest uses globally. Lowe’s enforces the California formaldehyde restrictions for all laminate, engineered, and bamboo flooring categories. The company also restricts lead to 600 parts per million (ppm) in surface coating for all products, not just regulated items.

In its most recent sustainability report, the company stated that for chemicals it is working to reduce or eliminate, it works with its “suppliers to identify alternatives for these chemicals.” However, the company did not describe how it assesses the hazards of alternatives.

In its most recent sustainability report, Lowe’s made its first-ever commitment to develop a comprehensive chemicals policy in 2018, but did not say whether it would be publicly available.

Lowe’s does not appear to encourage or require the disclosure of ingredients in products sold online or on product packaging or publicly disclose the identity of articles or formulated products that are free of chemicals of high concern going beyond regulatory compliance.

No discernible progress on chemical footprint.

Lowe’s requires that flooring products be certified to either Greenguard or FloorScore standards to meet CDPH-1350 standards for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). While these certification programs are primarily oriented around meeting a California regulatory standard, Lowe’s requires suppliers to meet this certification nationally.

Lowe’s briefed the Mind the Store campaign in advance of its public announcement banning methylene chloride and NMP in paint strippers in May 2018.

Lowe’s became the first major retailer to announce a ban on methylene chloride and NMP in paint strippers in all of its stores throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, which was a significant improvement to their work on chemicals in products.

In its most recent sustainability report Lowe’s stated: “Our RONA operations within Lowe’s Canada have had a strong system in place for approving eco-products for a number of years. They leverage life cycle analyses of product categories to define the criteria used to approve and promote certain products as ‘eco-products’ on our website and in stores. By the end of 2017, RONA had 2,700 eco-products in its portfolio — products with at least one of more than 25 certifications. We plan to expand the Lowe’s Canada platform for identifying eco-products globally and set product category targets in 2018 and 2019.” However, the company has not disclosed whether these eco-products would be free of chemicals of high concern or which third-party standards they meet.

The company also sells a large selection of VOC-free paints in the U.S. and 100 percent low-VOC paints in Canada (in compliance with Canadian regulations).

Lowe’s is active in the Green Chemistry & Commerce Council’s (GC3) Retailer Leadership Council (RLC) and stated in its most recent sustainability report that to “address chemicals in our products, we have participated in the Green Chemistry & Commerce Council since 2016, working with companies across multiple sectors to address chemicals of concern.”

No indication that company invests significant financial resources into independent research into safer alternatives to chemicals of high concern and/or green chemistry solutions.