Key findings from the fifth annual Who’s Minding the Store? retailer report card

With governments moving too slowly to ban toxic chemicals from consumer products, many companies are stepping up to the challenge to protect their customers, workers and vulnerable communities from harmful chemicals. But the results of the latest Who’s Minding the Store? retailer report card shows that most Canadian companies are failing to take meaningful action on harmful chemicals. 

Results overview of this year’s Who’s Minding the Store? Retailer Report Card

Every year, the Who’s Minding the Store? Retailer Report Card, an initiative led by the U.S. based Mind the Store campaign, benchmarks leading retailers on their progress in taking action on harmful chemicals. Environmental Defence has partnered with the Mind the Store Campaign since 2018 to evaluate the progress of Canadian-based retailers included in the report card. This year’s report card examines 50 retail companies, including these six Canadian-based companies: Alimentation Couche-Tard (the parent company of Circle K and Mac’s Convenience Stores), Canadian Tire, Loblaw Companies Limited, Metro, Restaurant Brands International (the parent company of Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes) and Sobeys.

Canadian retailers falling behind the pack

In the race towards safer chemicals, Canadian companies are consistently failing to make the grade. This year, the highest grade earned by a Canadian company was a C given to Loblaw. By contrast, three U.S.-based grocery retailers received a grade of A- or above (Target, Walmart and Whole Foods Market). 

Four of the six Canadian companies received an F grade, making up one-third of the companies featured in the Toxic Hall of Shame. The average grade of a D- (16 points) earned by Canadian companies was startlingly lower than the average grade of the U.S.-based companies at a C grade (48 points), underscoring the need for retailers to step up. 

Retailers that are taking the lead 

There is much to be excited about in this year’s report card. Here are some of the highlights of the progress made by certain retailers since 2019, when the last report card was published. 

1. More companies are moving away from grease-proofing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food packaging and food contact materials:

• Chipotle committed to eliminating PFAS from its bowls in 2020
• McDonald’s and Taco Bell announced they will phase out PFAS from food packaging by 2025
• Amazon announced it will ban PFAS from the food contact and packaging materials used for its private label Amazon Kitchen brand
• Whole Foods Market completed its phase out of PFAS-treated food service packaging
  

1. Retailers are ditching toxic receipts. Loblaw committed to switch to non-phenol (BPA- and BPS-free) receipt paper from all of its stores across Canada (including No Frills, Shoppers Drug Mart, etc.) by the end of 2021.
2. Target and Rite Aid in the U.S. became the first companies in the report card to commit to specifically screening beauty and personal care products marketed to women of colour for toxic chemicals.
3. Toxic plastics are getting attention:

• Amazon and Whole Foods banned the use of PVC, polystyrene and expanded polystyrene in the food packaging of the Amazon Kitchen brand and Whole Foods Market Food Service and Exclusive Brand packaging, respectively
• Best Buy stopped using PVC plastic for its gift cards

The Toxic Hall of Shame: Companies that earned an F

This year, 12 companies made it to the Toxic Hall of Shame. Alarmingly, Canadian-based companies made up a third of the companies (4 out of 12) which earned an F grade for taking little to no discernible action on toxic chemicals or plastics in consumer products or packaging in recent years. 

1. Metro

For the second year in a row, Metro received zero points for making no discernible progress on toxic chemicals and plastics of concern. Unlike its competitors Loblaw Companies Limited and Costco Canada, the Quebec-based grocery and drugstore retail company continues to drag its feet on phasing out BPS-coated receipt paper that puts the health and safety of its workers and consumers at risk.

Opportunities for Metro:

• Phase out receipt paper containing bisphenols including BPS by the end of 2021.
• Evaluate the Packaging and Printed Materials Management Policy and set and report on clear targets for eliminating plastics of environmental health concern such as polystyrene from product and packaging materials.
• Take steps to eliminate and safely replace PFAS, bisphenols and phthalates from food packaging and food contact materials.
• Eliminate toxic chemicals in beauty products marketed to women and people of colour. 

2. Sobeys

Over the last three years, Sobeys has consistently received an F grade for making next to no discernible progress on chemicals of concern. Sobeys does not have a  public written safer chemicals policy and has not set publicly available quantifiable goals for reducing and eliminating chemicals of high concern.

The company received a partial credit for working with its suppliers to eliminate 33,000 kilograms of Styrofoam plastic, which is a plastic of environmental health concern, and replacing them with “recyclable fibre for the approximately seven million trays” of mini-cucumbers sold during the 2020 fiscal year. 

Sobeys also trails behind its competitors by continuing to use bisphenol-coated receipt paper in its stores, a practice that puts the health of its cashiers and customers at risk.

Opportunities for Sobeys:

• Phase out receipt paper containing bisphenols including BPS by the end of 2021.
• Eliminate plastics of environmental health concern including polystyrene and PVC from product and packaging materials.
• Take steps to eliminate and safely replace PFAS, bisphenols and phthalates from food packaging and food contact materials.
• Eliminate toxic chemicals in beauty products marketed to women and people of colour.

3. Restaurant Brands International (Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes)

The Toronto-based fast food giant, RBI, has made little progress to eliminate toxic chemicals from food contact materials, earning a grade of F. The company has fallen behind its leading competitor McDonald’s by not committing to remove PFAS from food packaging. 

The company received partial credit for restricting some chemicals of high concern in promotional toys and BPA from food contact materials and for setting a public target to phase out expanded polystyrene foam in all food packaging globally by 2021.

Opportunities for RBI:

• Phase out PFAS from all food packaging across all divisions (Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes) globally.
• The company should develop a safer chemicals policy to reduce and eliminate other hazardous chemicals or hazardous plastics that may be in food contact materials.
• The company should become a signatory to the Chemical Footprint Project and pilot it with key private label suppliers.

4. Alimentation Couche-Tard (Circle K and Mac’s Convenience Stores)

The Quebec-based owner of convenience store chains, with around 15,000 stores worldwide, earned a grade of F for showing no significant public-facing action or progress on addressing chemicals and plastics of concern. This is the first time the company has been evaluated in the retailer report card. 

Opportunities for Alimentation Couche-Tard:

• Switch to non-bisphenol receipts across all stores globally to protect cashiers and customers.
• Phase out and safely replace PFAS, bisphenols and phthalates that may be in food packaging and food contact materials.
• Eliminate plastics of environmental health concern, including polystyrene, from its product and packaging materials
• Expand its use of safer car wash chemicals from Europe into the U.S. and Canada.

Take action by calling on Canada’s failing retailers to eliminate toxic chemicals of concern and protect their customers and workers.

For the full list of retailers and their grades, as well as recommendations for Loblaw Companies Limited and Canadian Tire, visit RetailerReportCard.com.