ChemFORWARD Introduces Ingredient Intelligence Reports to Benchmark and Track Progress Toward Safer Chemistry
ChemFORWARD's trusted, globally harmonized chemical hazard repository is helping brands, retailers, and investors gain new insights into what is known - and not known - about chemicals in their portfolios. It also provides a benchmark and clear actions for positive chemical management.
Chemicals are the building blocks for all physical things. Surprisingly, there is a shocking lack of safety information about chemicals. Currently, only 14% of the chemicals used in the largest volumes have the minimum amount of data publicly available to make an initial basic safety assessment.
The use of chemicals in the absence of safety data has led to an age of toxicity. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that toxic chemical exposure is everywhere and has contaminated every species and every environment. Hazardous chemicals represent a liability that is increasingly correlated with company valuations.
Identification of harmful chemicals isn’t the only risk, regrettable substitution can have similar effects. A regrettable substitution occurs when one chemical is banned, only to be replaced with another chemical just as harmful, or potentially worse. This has happened over and over again in recent years. Regrettable substitutions erode consumer confidence and lead to expensive redesign. This is entirely preventable with proactive use of chemical hazard assessment information.
Beyond risk, there is opportunity. Imagine if a company could prove that they were using inherently low hazard chemistry throughout their production - workers would be safe, the water and natural environment surrounding production facilities would thrive, consumers would have confidence in and loyalty to the brand, and the materials used to make these goods would be ideal inputs for circular systems. This is the regenerative economy that we are aiming for.
"We didn’t imagine this use case when we created the globally harmonized repository but as the dataset has grown, requests from brands, retailers, and investors for information from the dataset have grown leading us to develop and refine the Ingredient Intelligence Reports." said Stacy Glass, Executive Director of ChemFORWARD.
Ingredient Intelligence Reports create insights for business leaders with trusted, comparable information and are being used to gain insight into a single product or an entire assortment. Reports are designed to be run annually and offer insights to:
Measure progress against established chemical management goals (e.g. eliminate high hazards, grow use of safer chemistry, etc.)
Eliminate chemicals of high concern
Identify safer alternatives and avoid regrettable substitutions
Target investments to fill data gaps
Gain confidence in supplier claims
Prioritize initiatives that will have the greatest impact toward safer chemistry
Ingredient Intelligence Reports help companies realize better returns and build stronger brands while reversing the decades of negative impacts from the inundation of toxic chemicals that burden our economy, our environment, our products, and our bodies.
