Walmart Releases Guide for its New Sustainability Policy

Walmart recently released its Implementation Guide for its Sustainable Chemistry Policy and its available online to view. The guide is intended to for Walmart's suppliers, to help meet Walmart's overall sustainability goals it announced last September. There's actually a lot of information on sustainability hub to sift through, but here are some key takeaways. Suppliers will be required to:

• Disclose full product formulations to The Wercs, a partner, through WERCSmart.
• Disclose all product ingredients online by product beginning January 2015.
• Disclose all priority chemicals on pack beginning January 2018.
• Complete a sustainability report describing a supplier’s performance on chemical disclosure, risk assessment, and hazard avoidance
• Reduce, restrict, and eliminate the use of "Walmart High Priority Chemicals" of which there are approximately ten.

In other words, more transparency, safer products and redesign.

One thing to note is that Walmart hasn't actually revealed what their high priority chemicals are. It clearly states on their policy page that these chemicals were determined by the company, and have yet to be made public. So much for transparency.

Other Resources

Wal-Mart Releases Guidance for Suppliers on its New Sustainability Policy - American Coatings Assocation