Green America Toxic Textiles Scorecard
A new report finds that top U.S. clothing retailers and brands need to do better on toxic chemical management policies. The “Toxic Textiles” report by Green America provides a company-by-company breakdown of 15 major corporations and shows significant room for improvement across the sector on hazardous chemicals use, workplace conditions and transparency, according to the organization.
While individual clothing brands reportedy outperformed larger retailers overall, the report details how both areas of the industry can do better to protect consumers and workers from toxic chemicals used in textile manufacturing and found in clothing itself. Retailer and brand scorecards illustrate the top-level findings of the report.
Charlotte Tate, labor justice campaigns director at Green America, says, “Looking at the success of some companies on the scorecard, there is simply no reason for a company to not, at a minimum, have a restricted substances list and a manufacturing restricted substances list. In just a few years, we’ve seen some companies take major steps in the right direction, and now, we must see retailers – some of which, notably Amazon, have had hugely profitable years – step it up on chemical management in apparel.”
Other key findings of the report include:
- Target is the clear retail leader, according to Green America. Target is both an online platform and stores, and sells many apparel items under its own brands, which demonstrates it is feasible for every retailer included in the scorecard to improve its chemical management policies. Target has a publicly available restricted substances list (RSL) and a publicly available manufacturing restricted substances list (MRSL). It also has clearly stated goals of eliminating hazardous classes of chemicals.
- Amazon must do better. Amazon is a retailer and also an apparel brand with numerous private labels. Amazon has no public information about its chemical management for apparel, despite being the largest U.S. retailer of apparel, and it has disclosed no RSL or MRSL. The report calls on Amazon to address the impacts of own-branded products and to encourage sellers on its platform to step up on chemical management.
- Nike, Gap, Adidas and H&M beat out other clothing brands. Each of these brands have a public RSL and MRSL and have committed to eliminate or reduce the use of hazardous chemicals.
For more information, visit: www.GreenAmerica.org
