our mission
We partner with vendors to achieve outstanding quality for Target-brand and Target imported products. Our mission is to ensure that our vendors utilize efficient, safe and ethical factory environments where they can produce safe, reliable, high-quality products.
Teams focused on responsible sourcing, product safety and quality assurance, product investigations and recalls, and operations all work together to make sure we provide the best products for our guests.
responsible sourcing & sustainability 2025 goals
Thriving people and planet. This is the way we do business. We hold ourselves and our supply chain accountable to high standards, go beyond compliance, and continue to elevate performance. We use our influence to catalyze change and inspire others to do more.
Accelerate circular systems to protect, restore and sustain nature
By 2040, we aim to accelerate circular systems and achieve net zero emissions in our supply chain.
By 2025:
- We aim to have 50% of apparel, footwear, home and hardlines suppliers by spend achieve zero manufacturing waste to landfill
- We aim to have at least 50% of the energy used in strategic and joint business partner owned operations come from renewables
- We intend to leverage soil health practices to improve at least 1 million acres of land
Build a resilient supply chain through equity and justice
By 2025, we plan for 100% of suppliers to have policies and programs to advance gender equity
- Equitable systems for hiring and advancement
- Financial Security for their workers
- Effective anonymous channels for incident reporting
- Access to gender-responsive health information and services for their workers
Reimagine sustainable purchasing to advance equity and positive impact
By 2025, we plan for 100% of owned brand suppliers to regard Target’s purchasing practices as industry leading
- We intend all strategic business partners to rate Target's purchasing practices at 4 stars or above on the Better Buying Supplier Survey
- We plan for Owned Brand products to be measured using industry-leading Impact Profit & Loss methodology
- We plan for all Owned Brand suppliers to pay workers digitally
We believe in building on strong roots that accelerate positive impact
- Chemical Management
- Water Stewardship
- Sustainable Materials + Ingredients
- Safe & respectful working conditions
- Forced-labor prevention & ethical recruitment
- Building capability of business partners
- Transparency
- Collaboration
ensuring we source responsibly
We take steps in the following areas to make sure all of our products are sourced responsibly.
our philosophy
When it comes to sourcing products, we take a page from our company's founder, George Dayton, who was well-known for his strong business ethics. Today, we still strive to ensure our suppliers manufacture all of our products under the highest ethical standards, with compliance to all applicable laws, and work with vendors and factories who share those commitments. We also work with regulators, manufacturers, industry organizations and other retailers around the world to continually set the bar higher for our industry as a whole. We continually look for opportunities to improve our standards and processes.
view Target's Vendor Code of Conduct
where our products come from
Our Target Sourcing Services team sources merchandise from all over the world, anticipating issues and potential risks while making the best decisions for our business. We continually evaluate the mix of countries from which we source and adjust for many factors, including production quality, social responsibility, environmental sustainability, capacity, speed to market and pricing. We clearly label all products with the country of origin in compliance with regulations established by U.S. governmental agencies.
animal welfare
Target believes in the humane treatment of animals and expects vendors to engage in practices that are consistent with all applicable laws and industry guidelines and that promote the welfare of animals. We do not support the use of routine, non-therapeutic antimicrobials—including all antibiotics—to promote growth.
We expect our suppliers and the producers they work with to phase out this practice and only use antimicrobials when medically necessary.
cage-free shell eggs
In January 2016, we announced that we will work with our suppliers to increase our offerings of cage-free shell eggs nationwide, working toward a 100 percent cage-free shell egg assortment by 2025, based on available supply.
pork sourcing
We’re partnering closely with our pork product vendors to eliminate the use of sow gestation crates by 2022.
read more about our commitment to animal welfare
sustainable seafood
At Target, you can be confident that the seafood you buy was wild caught or farmed using sustainable practices. We’ve worked hand-in-hand with our partner FishWise, trusted vendors and other stakeholders, to ensure 100 percent of our fresh and frozen seafood is sustainable, traceable, or in a time-bound improvement process. Our expanded policy also addresses our sourcing of sushi and shelf stable tuna. We will continue to seek out ways to leverage our size, scale and reach in ways that we believe will lead to positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes in fisheries and aquaculture production.
read more about our commitment to sustainable seafood
good to know
We source Target-brand products from more than 3,696 registered manufacturing facilities in more than 49 countries, all of which we require to follow our standards for how to treat workers and care for the environment.
our global factory list
Target is committed to increased supply chain transparency. To meet this objective, we publish a list of all tier one factories that produce our owned-brand products, national brand products where Target is the importer of record, as well as tier two apparel textile mills and wet processing facilities. The increased transparency creates meaningful opportunities to enhance responsible and sustainable production practices. This list is subject to change and updates will be provided on a quarterly basis.
view Target's global factory list
We also support the Open Apparel Registry (OAR), an open source tool that maps apparel and footwear factories worldwide. It creates a unique ID for each factory to facilitate collaboration and data sharing. Quarterly, we publish a list of our tier 1 and tier 2 factories that produce Target owned-brand product and national brands where Target is the importer of record to the OAR platform.
view our list
Additionally, Target is represented on the Board of Directors of the OAR and actively engaged in elevating the use of the OAR across the apparel industry.
supply chain security
We're a founding member of the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT), a collaborative government-business initiative that strengthens international supply chain and U.S. border security. As part of the partnership, we conduct routine audits to ensure our international supply chain processes continue to meet standards.