Report reveals an actionable roadmap to address toxic chemical pollution across consumer product sectors
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Today, The Safer Chemistry Impact (SCI) Fund, an innovative blended capital initiative with seed funding from Apple and Google, released the first-of-its-kind metrics framework to measure and drive the adoption of safer chemistry across industries. The report, titled “Accelerating the Transition to Safer Chemistry: Establishing a Collective Vision & Impact Metrics,” is a multi-stakeholder effort to address the urgent crisis of global chemical pollution, which rivals carbon emissions as an existential threat to human and environmental health.
Unlike greenhouse gas emissions, where most companies have established clear and measurable goals toward achieving carbon neutrality, few have established goals for chemical hazard reduction, even in the face of impending chemical bans “on “forever chemicals” and other chemical classes. The adage may explain the lack of such goals: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
The report synthesizes ideas offered by government, nonprofit, and industry experts into a roadmap for the global supply chain as it navigates the complex transition away from chemicals linked to severe health issues like reproductive problems, endocrine disruption, and cancer. By providing a standardized approach to assessing and quantifying progress towards safer chemistry, the SCI Fund aims to enable companies with trusted data, simple tools, and metrics to reduce risk and accelerate investment in verified safer alternatives.
Key innovations include:
The Chemical Hazard Data Trust: A central data repository creating broad access to actionable chemical hazard data that reduces costs and time to replace chemicals of concern.
Impact Metrics: A set of six key metrics that track progress in data quality, availability, innovation, collaboration, and adoption of safer chemistry.
Metric Zero: The Fund will characterize the chemicals used in at least four in the next five years to prioritize action and investment in the sector. Retailers, brands, formulators, and chemical suppliers will utilize metric zero to set individual actions and goals that could contribute to the broader industry effort.
“The release of these metrics marks a turning point in corporate sustainability efforts,” said Bill Walsh, Director of the Safer Chemistry Impact Fund. “They will enable action on par with successful carbon reduction efforts. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Now we can measure our progress toward using chemicals and chemistry, along with energy, in harmony with planetary boundaries and healthy life on Earth.”
Stacy Glass, a member of the SCI Fund Advisory Board, added: “This science-based, data-driven collaborative effort has revealed that chemical hazards are knowable and the number of chemicals we are dealing with is manageable. While shared data is an enabler, collaboration is the accelerator. Working with this new framework, we can systematically reduce and one day eliminate chemical pollution.”
The impact of these metrics is expected to be far-reaching:
Industry: Businesses can set clear goals for reducing chemical hazards, track their progress, and communicate their achievements to stakeholders. The metrics will also facilitate collaboration across supply chains, driving the development and adoption of safer alternatives.
Investors: The metrics will provide investors with a standardized way to assess chemical impacts as part of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of companies, enabling them to make more informed investment decisions.
Policymakers: The metrics will provide policymakers with the data they need to develop effective regulations and incentives to promote safer chemicals and protect public health and the environment.
SCI Fund is committed to working with stakeholders across sectors to implement these metrics and drive the adoption of safer chemistry at scale. The fund invites businesses, investors, and philanthropies to join this collaborative effort and contribute to a world beyond toxic chemical pollution where chemicals are used harmoniously with Earth’s healthy life. Organizations interested in adopting safer chemistry are encouraged to visit www.saferchemistryimpactfund.org or contact the Fund Director at [email protected].
About the SCI Fund
The SCI Fund, a unique blended capital fund with seed investments from Apple and Google, aims to raise at least $15 million over the next five years to accelerate the industry’s transition to safer chemistry. The collaborative will identify, fund, scale, and measure impact solutions to embed safer chemistry across supply chains as the standard operating system.
Mikaya Thurmond
PR Strategist
Milan Public Relations
[email protected]
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SOURCE Safer Chemistry Impact Fund
