Methodology

Criteria: The Four Essential Elements for a Safer Marketplace

The updated scoring rubric, the Four Essential Elements for a Safer Marketplace, is a framework of best practices for businesses to address toxic chemicals and plastics. The Four Essential Elements build on and incorporate the previous iteration of the Retailer Report Card, first developed in 2016. The criteria are aligned with other best practices including the BizNGO Principles for Safer Chemicals and the Chemical Footprint Project. 

A summary of changes is available here.

The Four Essential Elements include:

Corporate Commitment: Evaluates the retailer’s adoption of a corporate safer chemicals policy, participation in the Chemical Footprint Project, external collaboration, and support of public policies. 

Transparency: Evaluates a retailer’s knowledge of hazardous chemicals and plastics in the products and packaging it sells, public disclosure of chemicals and plastics to consumers, and accountability measures to ensure supplier compliance with restrictions on hazardous chemicals and plastics.

Ban the Bad: Evaluates the scope of hazardous chemicals and plastics a retailer currently prohibits, quantifiable time-bound goals to reduce and eliminate hazardous chemicals and plastics, and progress in reducing and eliminating high-priority chemicals, chemical classes, and plastics of high concern.

Safer Solutions: Evaluates a retailer’s implementation of safer solutions, such as the sale of truly safer products; financial investments in safer solutions, and the steps it is taking to ensure suppliers are transitioning to safer chemicals and products.

Maximum possible points for each criterion were based on best professional judgment as to importance to the goal of eliminating and safely substituting the use of hazardous chemicals and plastics in consumer products, packaging, manufacturing, and store operations. The maximum possible total score is 165 points for retailers that sell beauty products and 155 points for all other retailers. The grading scale determining the letter grade awarded for points earned has also been adjusted, raising the bar to earn higher grades. 

Formulated products vs. articles

In the Transparency element, for “Supply Chain Disclosure” and “Consumer Disclosure,” new distinctions were made between formulated products and articles, as chemical ingredient information is more difficult to obtain for articles. Scoring for these two criteria was weighted based on the percent of formulated products vs. articles in a retailer’s product portfolio. See the scoring rubric for further detail.

Restaurant chains

The scoring rubric was tailored in several ways for restaurants in recognition of differences in products. Food is out of scope for the Retailer Report Card; restaurants were assessed on their packaging and operations. In the Transparency element, for “Supply Chain Disclosure” and “Consumer Disclosure,” restaurants were only assessed on private-label articles. In the Safer Solutions element, for “Implementation of Known Safer Solutions,” restaurants were only assessed on private-label solutions. See the scoring rubric for further details. 

Beauty products of environmental justice concern

For retailers that sell beauty and personal care products, retailers could receive up to 10 additional points for chemical management initiatives requiring disclosure of or restricting toxic chemicals in beauty products marketed to people of color. This is to address the growing concern that beauty and personal care products marketed to people of color often contain toxic ingredients, such as formaldehyde and phthalates. Similar criteria were incorporated in the previous iteration of the report card. Letter grades for all retailers were calculated based on percent of total possible points earned.

Our approach

We reviewed publicly available information reported by the retailers, including in corporate social responsibility or sustainability reports, websites, news releases, and blog posts throughout 2023-2024. We also reviewed official correspondence between the 50 retailers selected for evaluation and the Mind the Store program, Campaign for Healthier Solutions, and/or Environmental Defence Canada. After an initial evaluation of the retailers, we sent each one its preliminary scores against the Four Essential Elements for a Safer Marketplace with a standardized email, providing every company an opportunity to review our findings, disclose additional information, and/or make new public commitments to correct or improve its draft score and grade. We followed up with each retailer multiple times to ensure that staff had received the preliminary grade and understood the report’s deadline and process. If requested by a retailer’s staff, we scheduled a phone call with the retailer to review and discuss our findings. The majority of retailers, 56 percent (28 out of 50), responded to their draft scores, sharing feedback, new information, and/or setting new commitments on chemicals and plastics. After receiving and reviewing written input, we adjusted and finalized each score based on any new information that was disclosed in writing.