Macy’s received a letter grade of D-, scoring 16 out of 135 possible points, ranking it 21st out of 30 retailers. The company, which also owns Bloomingdale and Bluemercury, had started to take some actions to address toxic chemicals in the products it sells, but still has much room for improvement. Macy’s does not have a public safer chemicals policy. Macy’s committed to eliminating flame retardants in the furniture it sold in 2015, but has not publicly discussed the status of this commitment since then. Macy’s and its subsidiaries do promote safer products online by highlighting Natural Beauty products, but they don’t appear to require any products to be certified to a third-party safer chemicals standard and don’t require the disclosure of ingredients to show that these products are in fact safer. The product development organization of Macy’s is assessing the factories in the company’s supply chain using the Higg index, which measures activities including chemical use and management.
Opportunities for improvement: Macy’s should report on the status of its commitment to eliminate flame retardants in furniture. More broadly, Macy’s can make progress by developing a written safer chemicals policy and setting public quantifiable goals with clear timelines for reducing and eliminating chemicals of high concern, beginning with its private label products. Macy’s should also become a signatory to the Chemical Footprint Project and pilot it with key private label suppliers.
Note — our assessment is primarily based on the policies and practices of Macy’s, the parent company.
Summary of Macy’s Grade
0 out of 15 points
Policy: Adopted a retailer safer chemicals policy
0 out of 10 points
Oversight: Established management responsibilities and incentives
0 out of 10 points
Accountability: Ensures supply chain accountability
0 out of 10 points
Disclosure: Requires suppliers to report use of chemicals in products to retailer
6 out of 15 points
Action: Reduced or eliminated chemicals of high concern within the last three years
Macy’s has not publicly reported on progress in implementing this initiative. The company also hasn’t disclosed any progress on reducing other chemicals since then.
0 out of 10 points
Safer Alternatives: Evaluates safer alternatives, avoids regrettable substitutes
0 out of 15 points
Transparency: Demonstrates a commitment to transparency and public disclosure
Macy’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.
0 out of 7.5 points
Chemical Footprint: Evaluates its chemical footprint
0 out of 7.5 points
Third-party Standards: Promotes credible third party standards for safer products
Extra Credit:
0 out of 5 points
Joint Announcement: Public commitment demonstrated through joint announcement
0 out of 15 points
Continuous Improvement: Shows continuous improvement by steadily expanding safer chemicals policy
5 out of 5 points
Safer Products: Program to promote safer products in stores and/or on website
On www.bloomingdales.com, “Natural Beauty” is one of the “Featured Shops” in the Beauty category. This page has the following description: “Our clean collection of skin care, makeup, and hair care is free of sulfates, phthalates and parabens.”
bluemercury.com has a “Natural Beauty” link right on its homepage. Products in the “Natural Beauty” section include m-61 Powerful Skincare, which is “100% free from harmful parabens, sulfates, and phthalates.” bluemercury.com further promotes these products with a blog post under “Tips and Trends.”
5 out of 5 points
Collaboration: Actively participates in collaborative process to promote safer chemicals
0 out of 5 points
Impact Investment: Investing financial resources into independent research into safer alternatives and/or green chemistry solutions