American Eagle Outfitters
At a Glance
Industry
Retail and Apparel
Project Types
Goals/Targets, Supply Chain
Year
2022
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Summary
Ridhima provided recommendations for an evolution of American Eagle’s chemical management program for its supply chain.
Goals
American Eagle has addressed chemical management issues throughout its supply chain as part of its’ Water Leadership Program since 2017. AEO enlisted EDF Climate Corps Fellow Ridhima Chaudhuri to provide research and recommendations for an evolution of AEO’s chemical management program for its supply chain partners to create a more holistic program in line with industry best practices.
Solutions
Ridhima started with evaluating AEO’s current chemical management practices, benchmarking and against other apparel companies, and completing a gap analysis. She conducted interviews with various stakeholders from the apparel industry and researched industry best practices for reaching zero discharge of hazardous chemicals and evaluated various chemical certification programs.
Following her analysis, Ridhima prioritized a list of initiatives for AEO to follow to have safe and traceable chemicals into AEO’s supply chain. This included updating AEO’s restricted substances list and implementing a manufacturing restricted substances list, setting targets, and leveraging a chemical inventory management system to track progress. She also suggested standards for sourcing products using green chemistry certifications (e.g. GreenScreen, Bluesign, Oeko-Tex, ZDHC) to improve AEO’s supply chain program.
Potential Impact
As a result of Ridhima’s research and recommendations, AEO has a plan to engage suppliers to better understand and remediate potentially harmful chemicals in its supply chain and move towards zero discharge of harmful chemicals. AEO also now has the tools to determine how this new chemical strategy can be implemented and applied to their supply chain improvement program (Real Good) to drive adoption of the goals among suppliers.