Investors have filed resolutions with Five Below, Dollar General, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Kroger to expand and improve chemical safety programs. This comes at a time when regulatory risk and consumer concern is rising.
Since 2000, more than 35 states have passed 173 policies that establish state chemicals programs to identify, limit, or ban the use of harmful chemicals in products, including tips for consumers. PFAS, “forever chemicals,” are a particular growing global concern because of their persistence and toxicity. In 2022, more than 50 state bills are moving to ban PFAS in textiles, cosmetics, food packaging, and other applications.
Public concern about scientifically documented links between exposure to toxic chemicals and elevated rates of chronic diseases is shaping consumer choice. In a recently released peer reviewed study, scientists found new evidence that we are operating outside the safe zone for planetary boundaries on chemical pollution. Over the last two years, shareholder engagement and momentum have grown, including a 44 percent vote at TJX supporting a resolution from Trillium Asset Management and First Affirmative Financial Network that asked for a report on plans to reduce the company’s chemical footprint.
Investors are focusing on reducing chemical footprints to hold companies accountable for reducing financial risks. In the last decade, poor management of regulatory, legal, reputation, and redesign risks from toxic chemicals in products and production has caused plummeting company stock prices (Bayer, Lumber Liquidators, 3M, and Dow) and bankruptcy (SIGG NA and Johnson & Johnson). The Chemical Footprint Project’s leadership framework benchmarks corporate progress, reduces risk, and drives safer chemical use. It focuses on metrics that assess a company’s use of toxic chemicals, like endocrine disruptors and carcinogens, that are a material risk because authoritative bodies recognize they harm human health and the environment.
Toxic chemicals are inextricably connected to plastic pollution, pesticide contamination, biodiversity loss and climate change. For example, 96 percent of manufactured goods use chemicals dependent on fossil fuels and petrochemicals for production. We cannot solve the climate crisis, or the biodiversity crisis, with continued reliance on toxic, fossil fuel-derived chemicals.
Investors working with the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN) are leading corporate engagement efforts to establish best practice in the marketplace for chemical management. Their track record of success and impact includes commitments to reduce chemical footprints and drive safer chemical use in supply chains with companies like Walmart, Target, TJX, and Dollar Tree. These retailers, among other publicly traded companies, benchmark their progress toward best practice metrics set in the Chemical Footprint Survey. A safer chemicals economy is within our reach, and leading investors are driving the change necessary to ensure companies are actively reducing chemical footprints.
Alexandra McPherson
Consulting Manager, Investor Environmental Health Network
Mark Rossi
Executive Director, Clean Production Action