Wal-Mart, Target, CVS rate highest on chemical-disclosure scores

CVS HEALTH CORP. RANKED third-best on a scorecard from Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families that ranks major retailers’ policies on harmful chemicals. / COURTESY SAFERCHEMICALS.ORG
CVS HEALTH CORP. RANKED third-best on a scorecard from Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families that ranks major retailers’ policies on harmful chemicals. / COURTESY SAFERCHEMICALS.ORG

NEW YORK – Here’s one area where Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is handily beating Amazon.com Inc.: telling shoppers what ingredients are in the products they’re buying.

That’s the conclusion of a scorecard that ranks major retailers’ policies on harmful chemicals. Wal-Mart holds the top spot, followed by Target Corp. and Woonsocket-based CVS Health Corp. Amazon occupies last place in the study.

The report by Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a Washington-based coalition that advocates the use of more healthful products, ranked the 11 biggest merchants on a 130-point scale. The scores are based on 13 metrics, including ingredient disclosure, credible safety screening and efforts to find safer alternatives.

“Our policy is really to encourage a race to the top among leading retailers,” said Mike Schade, who leads the group’s retail campaign and co-wrote the report. “It’s more critical now than ever for big retailers, companies like Amazon and Costco, to use their multibillion-dollar purchasing power to drive toxic chemicals out of consumer products.”

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Consumers, retailers and manufacturers are all taking a closer look at what goes into the products they buy, sell and make as evolving science points to harm even from small exposures of some chemicals and techniques. That’s prompted the two largest U.S. retailers, Wal-Mart and Target, to introduce programs in the past three years to minimize the use of toxic ingredients in the products they offer.

“We are excited about the progress we’ve made in the chemicals space,” Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner said. “To date, our suppliers have successfully removed 95 percent of high-priority chemicals by volume weight from products we sell in Wal-Mart’s U.S. stores that are in the scope of our policy.”

The retailer will continue to work with its suppliers and groups such as Safer Chemicals “to advance sustainable chemistry,” Gardner said.

Wal-Mart, Target and CVS Health Corp. were commended for “making meaningful progress toward adopting policies for safer chemicals and products.” Wal-Mart scored a B, with 78.5 points, closely followed by Target at 76.5. CVS was graded C, with a score of 53.

“We continue to apply a rigorous process in identifying chemicals of concern,” said Eileen Howard Boone, a senior vice president at CVS Health. “Our goal is to ensure we meet consumer demand for safe, effective and environmentally preferred ingredients and provide sufficient information to educate our customers.”

Costco holds the penultimate spot on the list, with an F grade and 9.5 points, while the Internet giant Amazon ranked last with 7.5.

In July, Wal-Mart released a list of eight high-priority chemical groups it’s asked suppliers to eliminate, elaborating on a policy announced in 2013 to offer cleaning and personal-care products with safer ingredients.

‘Greater transparency’

Target, meanwhile, has expanded its own three-year-old program that rewards suppliers that list ingredients and choose safer substances. It added the cosmetics category and increased the number of substances it wants vendors to avoid.

Concern about harmful substances in the products they come into close contact with “is very much top-of-mind” for its customers, said Jennifer Silberman, Target’s vice president of wellness and sustainability. “We know that our guests are asking for greater transparency.”

Best Buy Co. and Walgreens Boots Alliance have both promised to develop written safer chemical policies, the report said. They ranked fourth and seventh, respectively.

Costco and Walgreens didn’t respond to a request for comment on the report, while Amazon had no immediate comment. Best Buy confirmed that it is working on a written policy but declined to comment further.

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