Target

In 2017, Target announced a new chemicals strategy, policy, and goals, which state it is “committed to driving transparency, proactive chemical management and innovation across all of our owned and national brand consumer products, and operations.” The policy applies to the company’s “entire value chain, operations and every product” it sells, including both private label and brand name products. The company states it “will utilize hazard profiles to prioritize substances for restriction in products and processes, with an emphasis on the impact these substances could have on workers, guests, and communities…Target will utilize Restricted Substances Lists (RSLs) and Manufacturing Restricted Substances Lists (MRSLs) to minimize and, where possible, remove these prioritized chemicals from our products and processes.” The policy is accompanied by clear goals and timelines for reducing perfluorinated chemicals and flame retardants in textiles, as well as parabens, formaldehyde-donors and nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) in beauty, baby care, personal care and household cleaning products. The company’s safer chemicals policy does not appear to apply to packaging.

Additionally Target previously developed its Sustainable Product Index (SPI), which encourages suppliers to disclose chemical ingredients, reduce chemicals of high concern, and promote safer alternatives. Target has flagged more than 2,000 chemicals as either “High Priority” or of “Concern.” Products are scored on a scale from 0 to 100 (or 110 for personal care products and 130 for household cleaning). Of those points, 35 address chemical hazards, 35 address transparency (which includes encouraging suppliers to disclose fragrance ingredients and the full chemical formulation to UL Purview for screening against Target’s list of “High Priority” or “Concern” chemicals), 5 address credible third-party standards, and 1 addresses nanomaterials disclosure. Additional criteria apply to household cleaning products, incentivizing suppliers to: 1) use a significant percentage of safer chemicals identified on EPA’s Safer Chemical Ingredient List (SCIL); and 2) reduce the use of VOC’s in cleaning products. Additional criteria also apply to personal care products, incentivizing suppliers not to use chemical ingredients banned in Canada or the European Union. Target applies the SPI to personal care, cosmetics, household cleaning, and baby care products.

Target has multiple staff that oversee and implement its safer Chemicals Policy and Sustainable Product Index (SPI). Target employees working to implement its Chemicals Policy set annual goals. Staff are incentivized to implement their policy, as employees may receive bonuses on an annual basis depending on their achievement of such goals.

Target’s 2015 sustainability report states the: “Board of Directors maintains oversight responsibility over Target’s reputation and corporate social responsibility efforts…Target’s EVP and Chief CSR Officer presents to the Board annually on CSR-related topics. Additionally, new directors participate in an orientation program that includes discussions with senior management, background materials on the Corporation’s plans, organization and financial statements, including CSR strategy, priorities and progress.”

Target has developed an ambitious safer chemicals strategy, policy and goals, which build on its Sustainable Product Index. The company has noted that “part of knowing what’s in products is understanding where they come from and how they’re made. So we’ll build on our work in the responsible sourcing space to help us verify that supply chain processes are sustainable, as well as ethical and responsible, from beginning to end.”

The company requires third-party testing for private label products that meet credible third-party safer chemicals standards such as Oeko-Tex.

The company has, however, not specifically disclosed initiatives to audit or train suppliers, or require additional testing to ensure supplier conformance with its safer Chemicals Policy.

One of the three pillars of Target’s new safer chemicals policy is Transparency, which states, “Target will strive for full visibility to chemicals contained in and used to make the products we sell and use in our operations. Target will work toward the long-term goal of full material disclosure for all products and processes across all categories and in our operations. Target will approach transparency in the supply chain as an iterative process, continually adding more product categories and achieving increasing levels of transparency.” Along with the policy, in 2017 the company set a new goal to “achieve transparency to all ingredients, including generics such as ‘fragrance’, in beauty, baby care, personal care and household cleaning formulated products by 2020.”

Target uses the UL WERCSmart and PurView platforms for collecting and evaluating information about chemical ingredients in consumables and other formulated products. Suppliers are graded on transparency and disclosure practices in their SPI and encouraged but not required to disclose full ingredient formulations. Target encourages disclosure of fragrance ingredients and full formulations through a third-party such as UL, DFE (Safer Choice), or a Cradle 2 Cradle certifier so that these ingredients can be screened against Target’s red list of chemicals of concern. Target has created this new screening mechanism so that ingredients can be evaluated for safety against Target’s High Priority and Chemicals of Concern while at the same time protecting confidential business information (CBI) of suppliers.

In 2017 Target set ambitious new goals to reduce chemicals of high concern with clear timeframes, and pledged to annually report on progress in implementing its policy: “We’ll monitor our progress, starting February 2017, and report on it each year in our Corporate Social Responsibility Report.” Otherwise, the company has not yet publicly reported on progress in reducing and eliminating chemicals of concern over the past few years since it launched its Sustainable Product Index.

Innovation is one of three core pillars of Target’s new safer chemicals policy. The company states that, “Target will actively pursue and promote new approaches to chemicals development and the commercialization of safer alternatives. Target will contribute resources and expertise to initiatives working to develop safe alternatives for chemicals where no viable alternatives currently exist. Target will support innovation which utilizes green chemistry principles in the development, design, and manufacturing of consumer products.” The company has also noted when eliminating chemicals of concern that, “Target will actively pursue the development of safer alternatives to achieve our goals. We will work to remove chemicals or find alternatives to those chemicals that could pose a risk to our guests, workers and community. When changes are made, we will ensure the integrity and safety of our products.”

Target’s Sustainable Product Index also provides a framework that suppliers could follow for evaluating alternative ingredients and, for example, rewards household cleaning products suppliers whose ingredients are on EPA’s “Safer Chemical Ingredients List (SCIL),” but the company does not outline specific alternatives or hazard assessment methodologies suppliers should follow.

Target’s safer chemicals policy is publicly available. Target has publicly disclosed that it restricts phthalates, propyl-paraben, butyl-paraben, formaldehyde, formaldehyde-donors, and NPE’s in beauty, baby care, personal care, and household cleaning products. They have also disclosed they are restricting perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) and “added flame retardants that are potential carcinogens in textiles” but they have not disclosed specifically which PFC’s and which flame retardants they are restricting. Target has publicly disclosed its authoritative list of lists of High Priority chemicals and Chemicals of Concern which can be utilized to identify the more than 1,400 chemicals with high level health concerns in its Sustainable Product Index.

Transparency is one of Target’s three pillars in its new safer chemicals policy, which states that “Target will strive for full visibility to chemicals contained in and used to make the products we sell and use in our operations. Target will work toward the long-term goal of full material disclosure for all products and processes across all categories and in our operations. Target will approach transparency in the supply chain as an iterative process, continually adding more product categories and achieving increasing levels of transparency.” Along with the policy, in 2017 they set a new goal to “achieve transparency to all ingredients, including generics such as ‘fragrance’, in beauty, baby care, personal care and household cleaning formulated products by 2020.” Target encourages suppliers to list ingredients on packaging and their websites including nanomaterials, fragrance, allergens, and other generic ingredients through its SPI. The company significantly expanded its criteria around public disclosure in 2016 to encourage suppliers to disclose ingredients to both Target and the public.

Target serves on the Chemical Footprint Project Steering Committee but has not become a signatory to the CFP or performed a CFP survey.

In 2017 Target announced that “Aligning with this strategy to remove unwanted chemicals from our supply chain, all of our Target owned-brand towels are now Oeko-Tex certified, a global testing and certification system for textile products at all processing levels.” In 2017 Target also announced a new baby brand, Cloud Island, a line of nearly 500 products that meets the Oeko-Tex Standard 100, which restricts more than 300 chemicals of concern. Target’s Sustainable Product Index encourages and rewards suppliers that meet either Safer Choice or Cradle 2 Cradle standards. Target has also reformulated most of its Up & Up liquid hand soap products to meet the EPA Safer Choice criteria, and Target’s Cat & Jack organic pajamas meet the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) standard, which prohibits numerous chemicals of high concern.

No discernible public commitment via joint announcement.

Target has continued to make improvements to its policy in 2017, building off progress it has made over the past few years. In 2017 the company announced a new safer chemicals strategy, policy and goals, including restrictions on new chemicals of high concern in multiple product categories. In its most recent sustainability report the company committed to continue to expand the scope of its policy: “As we move forward, we will continue to iterate, update and set new goals as needed, expanding the categories we cover and chemicals addressed.”

Target created the Made to Matter program in 2014 to promote and feature products online and on store shelves with key sustainability improvements including products that are free of priority toxic chemicals. Target states that these meet their “clean label” criteria, which is based on scores generated through their Sustainable Product Index. They sold over $1 billion worth of these products in 2015 alone. which continued throughout 2016. The company did not continue the program in 2017, though has indicated they will be launching the next iteration of marketing of safer products beginning in January 2018.

Target is active in the Beauty and Personal Care Products Sustainability Project (BPC) and the Green Chemistry & Commerce Council’s (GC3) Retailer Leadership Council (RLC). In announcing their safer chemicals policy, they stated, “Ultimately, we want to bring all stakeholders together to innovate and champion a consistent, industry-wide approach to greener chemistry.”

Innovation is one of three core pillars of Target’s new safer chemicals policy. The company states, “Target will actively pursue and promote new approaches to chemicals development and the commercialization of safer alternatives. Target will contribute resources and expertise to initiatives working to develop safe alternatives for chemicals where no viable alternatives currently exist. Target will support innovation which utilizes green chemistry principles in the development, design, and manufacturing of consumer products.” The company committed to “invest up to $5 million in green chemistry innovation by 2022.” The company reported in their most recent sustainability report that, “we are co-sponsoring the GC3 Preservatives Challenge to support more sustainable solutions for preservatives in beauty and personal care products. We also made several investments in 2016 with organizations like Healthy Babies Bright Futures, Advancing Green Chemistry and Beyond Benign to further education and awareness of these issues.” Since then Safer Made announced, “Target is making an investment in Safer Made, as a way to support safer chemistry innovation.”