Macy's, Inc. has partnered with WWF and RISE to tackle water management and worker well-being across its Private Brand supply chain, issuing supplier guidance for factories in high water-risk regions — with field programs already running in Vietnam's Mekong Delta and the Dong Nai River basin.

The initiative is a compliance and sourcing story as much as a sustainability one. It began in 2023, when WWF conducted a water risk assessment across Macy's supply chain, evaluating scarcity, water quality, community accessibility and reputational exposure. That assessment let the retailer prioritize action in high-risk areas and set what it calls contextual water ambitions. In 2024, WWF developed supplier guidance with Macy's and RISE, focused on Water Governance, Water Access, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and water quality — both inside factories and in the surrounding watersheds.

The commercial logic is direct. Rising temperatures are turning heat stress into an occupational health crisis on the factory floor, where machine heat, minimal ventilation and production pressure compound external conditions. Heat stress can cause exhaustion, illness and, in severe cases, organ failure.

"Extreme heat causes dehydration and fainting, putting workers' health at serious risk. It also reduces productivity and time on the job, resulting in immediate income loss for workers who are already struggling financially," said Christine Svarer, Executive Director of RISE (Reimagining Industry to Support Equality), a collaboration of workers, industry and policymakers active in garment, footwear and home textile supply chains.

What suppliers are being asked to do

The Macy's supplier guidance sets concrete requirements: clean water access throughout the factory, rest breaks without production penalties, adequate sanitation facilities and promoted hygiene practices. It also pushes compliance with water-related legal and regulatory requirements and respect for water rights. RISE contributed research on how climate change affects workers in Cambodia and Bangladesh.

The guidance singles out differentiated worker needs, particularly for women, who make up the majority of the industry's workforce. Menstruation Hygiene Management requires clean water, and its absence drives absenteeism. Local organizations in Bangladesh estimate that between 30% and 70% of absent days among female garment workers stem from poor MHM, citing studies from 2003–2014 (Paul-Majumder, IBRD, WSSCC, SNV).

Sanitation shortfalls compound the problem. Many workers avoid drinking water because toilets are few and crowded — worse in factories where women dominate the workforce but toilet counts match those for men. Pregnant workers face heightened risks from heat stress and dehydration; nursing workers need reliable hydration.

RISE's research also finds women workers bear more severe heat effects, taking more time off to care for family members who fall sick more frequently due to heat. "This leaves them with less time to recover and less able to work, making the health and financial consequences of climate change even more severe. To ensure our approach benefits everyone, we design and deliver with women's specific needs and priorities in mind," Svarer said. Piece-rate workers lose wages the moment they stop for a break.

Beyond the factory gate

WWF frames the factory-level measures as necessary but insufficient. In worker communities, households often lack public utilities or must fetch water from rivers and ponds — sources that may be contaminated or prone to drying up under prolonged drought. The burden of collection falls disproportionately on women and girls. Worker illness means missed hours and wages; for buyers, it disrupts production schedules and workforce reliability.

Macy's guidance therefore includes a Water Governance section covering the systems, policies and processes that allocate and protect water resources. On the ground, Macy's participates in WWF Vietnam's water stewardship program in the Mekong Delta, which combines WASH with Nature-based Solutions, policy advocacy and basin-level ecosystem work. In the Dong Nai River basin, the program has supported pipeline connections from the public water utility to communities that previously relied on untreated river water.

"Our ambition is to actively support our partners and communities in high-water stressed areas to scale action that is locally relevant and drives positive outcomes," said Laurie Rando, Sustainability Senior Director at Macy's, Inc. "This approach aims to ensure that water challenges are addressed locally, in collaboration with community members, and taking into account the health of local water resources."

The sourcing decision

For sourcing teams, the story sets a marker: water risk assessment is moving from voluntary disclosure toward supplier-level requirements with named compliance items — WASH provisions, non-penalized rest breaks, sanitation ratios, water rights. Private Brand suppliers in high-risk basins, starting with Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh exposure, should expect audits and guidance aligned to these criteria. Factories that treat clean water access and heat management as worker-welfare add-ons rather than operational dependencies risk both production disruption and buyer disqualification.