{"id":5458,"date":"2016-07-20T11:58:09","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T16:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/?p=5458"},"modified":"2023-11-22T17:36:33","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T22:36:33","slug":"major-strides-walmart-details-progress-on-chemicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2016\/07\/20\/major-strides-walmart-details-progress-on-chemicals\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Strides: Walmart Details Progress on Chemicals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boma Brown-West<\/a> is a Manager, Consumer Health Corporate Partnerships Program and Jennifer McPartland, Ph.D.,\u00a0<\/a>is a Senior Scientist with the Health Program<\/i><\/p>\n

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In 2013, Walmart published its\u00a0Sustainable Chemistry Policy<\/em><\/a>, which focuses on ingredient transparency and advancing safer product formulations in household and personal care products. EDF worked with Walmart as it developed its policy and has advised the company during implementation and data analysis.<\/p>\n

This past April, Walmart announced that the company achieved a 95% reduction by weight in the use of high priority chemicals of concern. Today, Walmart\u00a0shared<\/a>\u00a0considerable additional information detailing the progress made, including the identities of the initial\u00a0high priority chemicals<\/a>. Let\u2019s unpack this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Revisiting Walmart\u2019s Sustainable Chemistry Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Broadly speaking, Walmart made three commitments in its 2013 policy:<\/p>\n

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  1. to increase transparency of product ingredients,<\/li>\n
  2. to advance safer formulations of products, and<\/li>\n
  3. to attain U.S. EPA\u2019s Safer Choice certification [formerly Design for the Environment] of Walmart private brand products<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The policy, which went into effect in January 2014, focuses on formulated household cleaning, personal care, and beauty products, sold at\u00a0Walmart U.S. and Sam\u2019s Club U.S. stores. A few months after releasing the policy, Walmart published a\u00a0policy implementation guide<\/a>\u00a0that gave suppliers greater specificity as to Walmart\u2019s expectations and, importantly, outlined the quantitative metrics Walmart would use to track and report progress.<\/p>\n

    How Walmart has fared so far<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    1. \u201cTransparency\u201d:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Walmart\u2019s policy requires its suppliers to be more transparent about the ingredients in their products in two ways. First, Walmart requires suppliers to submit \u201cfull product formulations\u201d \u2013 the names and concentrations of all ingredients in a product \u2013 to\u00a0WERCSmart<\/a>, a 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0party- managed product ingredient database. WERCSmart provides the retailer with aggregate information about the types and quantities of chemicals in the products on its shelves without divulging specific product formulation data.<\/p>\n

      Second, the policy requires suppliers to increase ingredient transparency to consumers by calling for disclosure of product ingredients online starting in 2015. Further, any Priority Chemical found in a product must be disclosed on the product\u2019s packaging starting in 2018. Priority Chemicals (PCs) are Walmart\u2019s designated chemicals of concern, drawn from\u00a016 reputable regulatory and authoritative lists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      To track the first requirement, Walmart determined the number of products whose ingredients are fully accounted for in the WERCSmart database. According to the\u00a0data<\/a>, 94% of the product formulations are full formulations. This suggests that the other results Walmart presents today are based on real data.<\/p>\n

      To track ingredient transparency to consumers, Walmart polled suppliers about their online disclosure practices using the\u00a0Walmart Sustainability Index<\/a>, its annual environmental issues survey sent to suppliers. In 2015, 78% of respondents reported they disclose ingredients online for all their products. Walmart also\u00a0breaks down the responses<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0in more detailed ways, such as by department.<\/p>\n

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      1. \u201cAdvancing safer formulations of products\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        The bulk of Walmart\u2019s policy focuses on providing safer products to customers by calling for the \u201creduction, restriction, and elimination\u201d of Priority Chemicals (PCs), and for product reformulations to be undertaken using \u201cinformed substitution<\/a>\u00a0principles.\u201d Because the list of PCs includes hundreds (if not thousands) of chemicals \u2014 as evidenced by Walmart\u2019s\u00a0reference list<\/a>\u00a0of regulatory and authoritative lists used to define its PCs \u2014 Walmart focused its suppliers\u2019 attention on a shorter list of\u00a0High Priority Chemicals<\/a>\u00a0(HPCs).<\/p>\n

        Today, Walmart identified the HPCs as\u00a0propylparaben,\u00a0<\/strong>butylparaben, nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate, triclosan,\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0toluene<\/strong>. These eight chemicals and chemical classes appear on a number of authoritative lists (e.g. EU REACH Substances of Very High Concern) for their hazardous properties and are worthy of action by Walmart. The revelation of the identities of the chemicals was long-awaited and provides context to the rest of the information Walmart shared today.<\/p>\n

        To assess the portion of its chemical footprint1<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0related to product sales covered by the policy, Walmart has measured progress in two ways:\u00a0(i) the total\u00a0<\/strong>weight of HPCs contained in products sold, i.e. pounds of HPCs going out the door, and\u00a0(ii) frequency of use<\/strong>, i.e. the number of products on store shelves that contain HPCs and the number of suppliers using HPCs in their products. Walmart relied on RetailLink, its internal product inventory database, and WERCSmart, mentioned earlier, to make these calculations. Walmart has also computed and\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0this data for all Walmart PCs in the covered product categories.<\/p>\n

        Walmart reports a dramatic reduction in the total weight of PCs and HPCs going out the door. The total weight of HPCs dropped by 95% and PCS by 45%.\u00a0 The more than doubling of reduction of HPCs suggests that focusing attention on a subset of chemicals accelerated action.<\/p>\n

        Walmart attributes part of the success to its ability to determine which select set of suppliers used the majority (in pounds) of HPCs. This illustrates the utility of a product ingredient database that can provide aggregate information by supplier while not disclosing proprietary information.<\/p>\n

        As it relates to progress made in reducing the frequency of use of HPCs, the results were far more modest.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it appears that suppliers who use HPCs are largely still using them, though the aggregate mass has dropped. Overall, the percent of products containing HPCs dropped by only 3 percentage points (to 16%), while the percent of suppliers using HPCs increased slightly (to 39%). Meanwhile, the percent of products containing any Priority Chemical actually went up one percentage point (to 80%).<\/p>\n

        So while the weight amount of HPCs, and PCs more broadly, has dropped significantly, there is clearly much more work to be done to achieve complete elimination of these chemicals.<\/p>\n

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        1. \u201cSafer Choice [formerly Design for the Environment] in private brands\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Lastly, Walmart committed to increase the number of private brand product offerings bearing Safer Choice certification. As discussed in our recent\u00a0blog<\/a>, the\u00a0Safer Choice Program<\/a>\u00a0is a voluntary program implemented by the U.S. EPA that seeks to recognize and bring consumer awareness to products that are leading the way when it comes to safer ingredients. This is the only commitment for which Walmart has not\u00a0released<\/a>\u00a0quantitative data. The company reports that it has hit snags in making progress against this target but is still committed to the program.<\/p>\n

          Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

          Overall, Walmart has made major strides regarding the commitments set forth in its policy. Equally notable, it has set in place effective systems to measure and track progress over time \u2013 an ability that can\u2019t be underestimated.<\/p>\n

          In our next blog, we\u2019ll assess where Walmart\u2019s progress rates against EDF\u2019s\u00a0five pillars of leadership<\/a>\u00a0for safer chemicals in the marketplace.<\/p>\n

          <\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n

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          1<\/a>\u00a0<\/sup>As defined by the\u00a0Chemical Footprint Project<\/a>, a chemical footprint is \u201cthe total mass of chemicals of high concern in products sold by a company, used in its manufacturing operations and by its suppliers, and contained in packaging.\u201d<\/sub><\/p>\n

          Further Reading:<\/p>\n