Traceability program

Target is accelerating its implementation of supply chain traceability programs as the industry becomes increasingly determined to understand where and how products are made. We are initially focusing on cotton due to its prevalence in our assortment, regulatory requirements surrounding cotton and our  Cotton Commitment.Eventually, we aim to achieve full visibility of where the cotton we use is grown, collaborating with farmers, brands, other retailers and organizations that share our commitment. We also intend to track and validate our progress.

We are also focusing on palm oil and in 2022, working closely with our partners at the Earthworm Foundation, we achieved traceability to the mill level for 96% of our palm oil supply and are working to trace the remaining volumes.

Read more about responsibly sourced commodities, environmental protection and social standards in our supply chain, and our work to limit the use of conflict minerals in our owned brand products. 

Mapping the supply chain & global factory list 

We publish a list of all tier 1 factories that produce our owned brand products, national brand products where Target is the importer of record, as well as tier 2 fabric, trim, packaging, 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 are made on a quarterly basis.

Download Target's global factory list (.xls)

We support, and are represented on the Board of the Open Apparel Registry (OAR), an open-source tool that creates unique IDs for apparel and footwear factories to facilitate collaboration and data-sharing. Every quarter, we upload our updated global factory list to the OAR platform.

We support the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE)’s Green Supply Chain Map initiative. Using credible, publicly available data, IPE’s Map provides both real-time performance data and historical trend information related to air pollution emissions and wastewater discharge for manufacturing facilities. Target contributes by sharing our supplier factory list and maintaining updates for use in IPE’s mapping efforts. Map users can click the Target logos to access information on those factories’ environmental performance and sustainability efforts.

Tier 2 environmental oversight 

At Target, our Standards of Vendor Engagement include environmental sustainability standards which are applied 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 soft home textile and apparel suppliers. We’ve taken initial steps to map Target’s tier one and tier two soft home textile and apparel suppliers as published within our global factory list.  

Currently, all tier one and tier two soft home and 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 soft home and 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 standards to ensure compliance and to promote excellent environmental performance within our supply chain. 

Collaboration and partnerships  

We continue to improve transparency and visibility via collaborations with external stakeholders and vendor partners.

Measuring the impact of materials.  

We are a founding member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), a group of more than 250 brands, retailers, suppliers, nonprofits 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, a suite of tools to help the industry measure the impact of the value chain in a standardized manner across the industry. In 2012, Target began asking factories producing Target-brand products to use the Higg Index self-assessment. The results are part of our business partners' annual scorecards. In 2020, Target began to require the Higg FEM self-assessment for all factories in scope of our Responsible Sourcing Program as a part of doing business with Target.

Transparency in supply chains disclosure 

At Target, we are committed to respecting human rights throughout our operations and recognize that we can impact the human rights of our team members, guests, workers in the supply chain and people in the communities in which we operate. Learn about our commitment to supply chain transparency in our annual Transparency in Supply Chains disclosure.