Loblaw

Key Findings and Recommendations

• Corporate Commitment: Loblaw’s chemicals policy does not commit to avoiding chemicals of high concern as defined by hazard criteria beyond regulatory compliance in products, packaging, or operations. The policy does state that it is committed, where possible, to offering choices that meet its customers’ expectations. The company maintains a performance-based environmental management system, overseen by its Compliance and Ethics department, to ensure compliance with company policies. Loblaw’s private-label brand Joe Fresh is a member of Cascale (formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition), and Loblaw is a founding member of the Canada Plastics Pact. Loblaw should commit to avoiding chemicals of high concern using hazard-based criteria, with an explicit preference for safer alternatives.
• Transparency: There is no indication that Loblaw requires suppliers to disclose chemical ingredients or plastics to the retailer or consumers, nor that it requires testing to ensure products are free of hazardous chemicals or plastics beyond regulatory compliance. Loblaw does highlight its private-label President’s Choice cleaning products formulated without parabens or sodium laureth sulfate with its Planet First label. Loblaw should require ingredient disclosure, verify accuracy, and evaluate its chemical footprint.
• Ban the Bad: Loblaw restricts BPA in its private-label President’s Choice baby products; bisphenols in receipt paper; and intentionally added phthalates, triclosan, and plastic microbeads in its private-label Lifebrand and President’s Choice household, beauty, and cosmetic products. It also has replaced plastic hangers with wood for most apparel categories and has replaced plastic corners for banana boxes with cardboard. In 2022, Loblaw reported that it has fully eliminated bisphenols in receipt paper. Loblaw should set public, quantifiable goals for reducing and eliminating chemicals of high concern or plastics of high concern and publicly report on its progress in meeting those goals.
• Safer Solutions: There is no indication that Loblaw has supported the development or sale of safer products. Loblaw should work to ensure substitutes for chemicals and plastics of high concern are safer for the health of consumers, communities, workers, and the environment.