twelve major companies — including the multinational that owns tim hortons — have been added to the toxic chemical “hall of shame” for failing to adequately address some of the harmful substances found in their products.
rbi’s entry comes courtesy of this year’s instalment of
who’s minding the store? a report card on retailer actions to eliminate toxic chemicals
, a report compiled by a group of non-profits and environmental advocacy organizations. the group handed out 12 failing grades to popular brands it says are not carrying their weight toward a safer future. the list includes restaurant brands international (rbi) — the owners of tim hortons, burger king and popeyes — as well as sobeys and metro, two of the three largest canadian food retailers.
starbucks, subway, 7-eleven, sally beauty, publix, nordstrom, ace hardware and 99 cents only stores also made the toxic list, as did alimentation couche-tard, the operator of thousands of convenience stores in canada, the u.s. and a host of other countries.
according to mike schade, the report’s co-author and campaign director for mind the store, it isn’t easy to fail this test. “we score companies on a curve,”
he said, according to cnn
. “all a company has to do to break out of an f is to get more than 15 points and companies can earn up to 164 possible points. for example, nordstrom earned 13 points while target earned 105 points.”