Walmart Ups Commitment to Sustainable Household, Personal Care Ingredients

In a bid to increase transparency and offer more sustainable options, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is doubling down on its sustainable chemistry policy for household cleaners and skincare products. As part of its ongoing initiative, the world’s largest retailer is expanding the scope of its original private brand expectations to now include national brands.

The policy expansion includes efforts to reduce the consumables chemical footprint for Walmart and Sam’s Clubs U.S. stores 10 percent by 2022. The goal applies to chemicals defined by the Walmart Priority Chemicals List in its revised commitment.

“We know our customers are interested in what goes into products and how they are made. It’s important for them, and we are advocating for them by encouraging innovation and transparency into that process,” says Zach Freeze, senior director of strategic initiatives for sustainability at Walmart. “Our strengthened commitment provides more clarity on our expectations for suppliers in working towards enhanced product formulations and setting concrete benchmarks to check progress along the way.”

As part of the promise, Walmart is holding the expectation that all suppliers will provide a full ingredient disclosure both online and on product packaging by 2018. Further, the retailer is adding two new regulatory lists to its priority chemicals list to better address fragrance allergens ingredients. In addition to its new chemical footprint reduction goal, Walmart will also ask suppliers to verify the purity of ingredients where contaminants of concern may exist.

Last month, Walmart became the first retailer to participate in the Chemical Footprint Project survey, and publicly reports its progress annually through the Global Responsibility Report and Sustainability Hub. To date, the retailer’s suppliers have removed 96 percent of high priority chemicals by volume weight from the consumables products sold in Walmart U.S. stores, up from 95 percent last year.

“Walmart has set an industry precedent for targeting and measuring reductions of chemicals of concern in its products,” says Boma Brown-West, senior manager at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). “Walmart demonstrates the Five Pillars of Leadership on safer chemicals and encourages the pursuit of safer products across the supply chain.”

Walmart is looking to expand its sustainably formulated products by encouraging use of two additional third party verification programs that lend credibility to green chemistry and safer substitutions. The Cradle to Cradle (silver level and above) and EWG Verified programs are being recognized as aligning with Walmart’s commitment along with EPA Safer Choice.

Walmart’s sustainable chemistry commitment, originally launched in 2013, covers approximately 90,000 products from 700 suppliers.