supply-chain sustainability

The future of our business depends on taking care of the resources we have today, so we work with industry partners and experts on ways to reduce the environmental impact of our products, from packaging to transporting them to our stores. Our aim, working with our partners, is to create better tools and more efficient processes for producing and shipping our products over time, and to use what we learn to improve our own practices.

At Target, we recently expanded our Standards of Vendor Engagement to include environmental sustainability standards and we are applying them within our merchandise supply chain to ensure our partners are achieving and sustaining a high level of environmental performance.

To apply these standards, we go beyond our tier one suppliers to also work with our tier two apparel textile suppliers using our Secondary Facilities Oversight (SFO) program. The SFO was modeled upon a framework created by the Natural Resources Defense Council for brands developing supply chain policies to improve environmental performance. We’ve taken initial steps to apply the framework by mapping Target’s tier one and tier two apparel and textile suppliers as published within our global factory list, accessible here. Currently, all tier one and tier two apparel textile suppliers disclose environmental impacts related to their production using the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Higg Facilities Environmental Module (FEM). Target also holds tier two apparel textile suppliers accountable by using the Higg FEM verification process to audit and ultimately elevate their environmental performance.

Those results are subject to third party verification and are mapped against the applicable environmental sustainability standard to ensure compliance and to promote excellent environmental performance within our supply chain.

In 2011, we became a founding member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalitionlink opens in a new window (SAC), a group of more than 80 apparel retailers, suppliers, non-profits and NGOs who work to reduce the environmental and social impacts of apparel and footwear products around the world. The coalition’s first major project was to create The Higg Index, link opens in a new window a tool to help the industry measure the impact of materials, packaging, manufacturing processes and transportation on the environment.

In 2012, Target began asking vendors and their factories producing Target-brand products to use the Higg Index, a self-assessment. The results are part of vendor's annual scorecards. In 2013, we completed a second round of surveys based on the index, with a 97 percent response rate. We also played a key role in developing the Higg Index 2.0, and we're working with other SAC members to launch the new version in 2014.

Target is a partner with the Natural Resources Defense Council in its Clean by Design initiative, which identifies practical, cost-saving opportunities so our suppliers can increase operational efficiencies in their factories, while simultaneously reducing resource usage, waste and emissions.

In 2011, in collaboration with our suppliers, we piloted the 10 best practices of Clean by Design in three Chinese textile mills, and saw significant savings in water, energy and chemicals as a result. Encouraged by those results, and in continued collaboration with additional suppliers, we expanded the program twice more in 2012 and 2016, onboarding an additional 19 mills into the program.

The facility improvements adopted by our supplier’s participating mills have yielded exciting and significant results. On average, water usage is down 8% within mills that conducted water savings projects. Each year, the mills save over 12,000,000 KwH of energy from all energy sources. Combined, the annual average energy savings per mill account for a reduction of nearly 1,500 ton standard coal each year.

To date, Target, together with our suppliers, have engaged 22 Chinese mills in the Clean by Design program, which is just one of the ways we partner with our supply chain to minimize the environmental impacts of manufacturing.