ChemFORWARD Speaking Engagements
ChemFORWARD has been invited to speak at several conferences this Fall. You can find all the details below. If you are attending any of these events please reach out and connect with us or attend our session as we share specifics about what ChemFORWARD is doing to accelerate the elimination of toxic chemicals and transition to safer chemistry in multiple sectors.
November 9 | Philadelphia, PA
Key Factors for Successful Adoption of Green Chemistry across the Supply Chain
Stacy Glass, ChemFORWARD Co-Founder and Executive Director
The goal of this session is to share learnings and insights from successful adoption of green/sustainable chemistries across the supply chain (including process chemicals and chemicals in consumer products). Several speakers have been invited to share their insights on key factors for successful adoption of green chemistry, from the perspectives of a chemical manufacturer, product manufacturer and retailer. ChemFORWARD will provide an update on our work and various initiatives in electronics, beauty and personal care, and packaging, demonstrating how data sharing is accelerating the transition to safer chemistry.
November 10 | Virtual
Beyond PFAS-Free Packaging
Stacy Glass, ChemFORWARD Co-Founder and Executive Director
The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) and ChemFORWARD are hosting a webinar to share results of a rigorous safer materials pilot project that goes beyond PFAS-Free. Regulations and restricted substances lists (RSLs) indicate what not to use, but the next question is: What to use instead? Without robust, high-quality data, this question cannot be answered and everyone in the value chain is vulnerable to regrettable substitutions.
The webinar will feature participants from the Safe + Circular Materials Collaborative, a year-long supply chain collaboration that explored the challenges of circular packaging and solutions to accelerate the transition to safer alternatives. Participants will share their experience pushing beyond PFAS-free to provide solutions that were fully assessed and verified as PFAS-free and safer alternatives. In this webinar, you will learn about this journey from leaders at Ahlstrom and World Centric while gaining an early preview of efforts to populate a shared registry of verified safer building block materials. Join us for a look at the future of safe and circular materials for packaging.
Chemical Watch Product Sustainability Summit USA
November 15 | Arlington, VA
Data Sharing: A Strategy to Accelerate Sustainable Design
Stacy Glass, ChemFORWARD Co-Founder and Executive Director
Data sharing is core to scaling the transition to safer chemicals. Safer chemicals are a foundation for material circularity and achieving sustainable design. ChemForward's globally harmonized repository of chemical hazard assessments and safer alternatives provides necessary infrastructure to inform this change. This session will highlight:
Quality and continuous improvement processes to ensure trust in shared data;
Multi-stakeholder approaches that contribute to scale and create collective impact; and
Improved access and knowledge as a driver for economic and social benefit.
November 17 | Pittsburgh, PA and Virtual
The ChemFORWARD SAFER Program and Safer Trade Name Ingredients
Chris Bartlett, Ph.D., ChemFORWARD Lead Toxicologist
This presentation will provide an overview of the ChemFORWARD Chemical Hazard Assessment (CHA) repository, the SAFER program for chemical suppliers, and a case study assessing polymeric materials as safer alternatives.
Alternatives assessment involves comparing the hazard profiles of chemicals with similar functions to choose the chemical with the least inherent hazard. Botanicals and polymers present unique challenges in hazard characterization. To overcome this challenge ChemFORWARD has developed an assessment approach to evaluate and score botanicals and polymers in a manner that allows comparison with traditional chemicals.
Dr. Bartlett will demonstrate how the chemical hazard repository allows for evaluation of ingredients by trade name with consideration for additives, residuals and impurities in the hazard review process. While this is important for all chemicals, it is particularly important for botanicals and polymers, which can vary based on manufacturing processes.
December 14 | Virtual
Safer Low VOC Solvents and Safer Flame Retardants
Lauren Heine, Ph.D., ChemFORWARD Co-Founder and Director of Science & Data Integrity
This two-day virtual conference offers the latest information and advice on chemicals management and restrictions in electronics. Lauren Heine will share ChemFORWARD’s work with the Electronics Safer Chemistry Collaborative - eight brands (and growing) working together to accelerate the transition to safer chemistry using a unique data-sharing model. The session will cover:
How can electronics manufacturers reduce VOCs in manufacturing while ensuring that they maintain and/or continue to improve the human health and environmental fate and toxicity profiles of the chemicals used in their products and processes?
How can manufacturers find chemical hazard and relevant performance information on solvent candidates for use in low VOC products?
How can manufacturers get out ahead of regulations to select flame retardants that meet material compatibility requirements and that are inherently of low hazard?
