Chemicals and Product Ingredients
Our approach to the safety of the chemicals and ingredients used in the products we sell is comprehensive and evolving. We are committed to meeting the needs of our consumers and have developed the following approach.
Chemicals Management
At Walgreens Boots Alliance, we understand that our consumers want to feel confident that the products they use are safe for their intended purposes. This means that the products we sell are rigorously analyzed for compliance with all applicable laws and regulations and our own higher standards. To formalize this commitment, Walgreens Boots Alliance has implemented a chemicals management program that assesses and restricts the use of certain chemicals or ingredients in products sold in our stores and online. Our Chemical Policy Statement can be found here.
Chemicals occur in all aspects of life, most of them naturally. Others are manufactured or synthesized using industrial processes. While the vast majority of chemicals people encounter everyday are safe, scientific analysis has shown there are risks associated with the manufacture or use of certain chemicals at certain levels, leading regulatory bodies to ban or restrict their use in specific geographies.
As a consumer-facing company we are aware that there is customer concern about the safety of certain chemicals that are not restricted by law. Additionally, our own product safety analysts may come to a different, stricter conclusion than some regulatory bodies. To address these concerns, Walgreens Boots Alliance has developed a Restricted Substances List for chemicals or ingredients in baby, personal care and household cleaning products within Walgreens and Boots UK owned brands and exclusive consumer retail lines. We have begun the process of reformulating products in these categories with the goal of removing ingredients on the Restricted Substances List by the end of 2021.
We intend to report annually on the progress we have made in removing restricted ingredients and update our Restricted Substances List—which can be found here—as more scientific information becomes available.
We are also examining additional ingredients within our beauty and personal care products to determine if we may restrict them in the future. This internal Stewardship List will be refined and reviewed on an ongoing basis.
In addition, we actively participate in the cross-industry, collaborative Beauty and Personal Care Products Sustainability Project, which has led to the development of a rigorous process for evaluating beauty and personal care product sustainability. We intend to provide updates regarding how we are implementing these additional processes.
Safer Alternatives
Walgreens Boots Alliance is working to enable consumers to make informed choices by encouraging suppliers to obtain credible certifications (including third-party certifications such as EPA Safer Choice and Cradle to Cradle Certified) and to make it easy for consumers to find these more sustainable products.
Transparency
In addition to removing certain chemicals, we believe in providing consumers with transparency and the information they want on ingredients in the products they use. Walgreens Boots Alliance has listed the ingredients in all owned brand household cleaners on their respective product labels. In addition, we encourage all suppliers of formulated products to endeavor to publicly disclose intentionally added ingredients.