Ensuring Safe, Responsibly Sourced, and Sustainable Products

Retail in 2020

By [ Kathleen McGuigan , Erin Hiatt ]
03/10/2020

In today’s hypercompetitive retail environment, consumers have an unlimited number of options to purchase goods and services. Earning and retaining consumer loyalty is critical to a retailer’s success. Consumers evaluate retailers based on a growing range of performance expectations that go far beyond just price and quality to include things like new innovative and sustainable products as well as supply chain transparency. To be successful, retailers must anticipate these expectations and their associated risks.

Driving Compliance, Responsible Sourcing, and Sustainability Efforts

Retailers are paving the path forward to act on environmental and social compliance concerns in their direct operations and product supply chains. These efforts include:

Reducing energy, greenhouse gases, and waste;
Ensuring safe and ethical manufacturing working conditions;
Addressing chemicals of concern; and
Exploring innovative, more circular business models.

RILA also helps members strengthen their compliance programs through early identification of emerging risks, member education, and peer-to-peer benchmarking and sharing of best practices.

RILA Advocacy Goals

In meeting customers’ expectations, retailers face several challenges including a lack of transparency into global supply chains and a complex system of laws, regulations, and standards. Regulations should reflect the realities of 21^st century global supply chains to provide transparency to stakeholders.

Additionally, it is critical that governmental policies and requirements be drafted with full consideration of retail operations to avoid creating unintended consequences. RILA is working with federal, state, and local lawmakers to ensure that government requirements related to retail operations, products, and packaging, including climate and waste reduction requirements, are based upon sound science, environmental and market impact research and advance public policy objectives without imposing undue burdens on consumers or the retail industry.