New Metrics

First-of-Their-Kind Metrics Guide Supply Chain Transition to Safer Chemistry

Replacing hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives across supply chains is one of sustainable business’s biggest challenges. The Safer Chemistry Impact Fund reveals an actionable roadmap to address toxic chemical pollution across consumer product sectors.

Published 3 months ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: Kampus Production

On Wednesday, The Safer Chemistry Impact (SCI) Fund — an innovative blended-capital initiative with seed funding from Apple and Google — released a first-of-its-kind metrics framework to measure and drive the adoption of safer chemistry across industries.

The report, 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 bans on "forever chemicals," a growing number of toxic dyes and chemicals used in food and personal-care products, and other chemical classes. The old adage, "You can't manage what you can't measure," may explain the lack of such goals.

The report synthesizes ideas offered by government, nonprofit and industry experts into a roadmap for global supply chains as it navigates the complex transition away from chemicals linked to severe health issues including 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.

The Safer Chemistry Impact Fund is taking on one of the biggest challenges in sustainable business today: replacing hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives across global supply chains. Its latest report sets a new benchmark for the industry and introduces several key innovations:

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 SCI Fund. "They will enable action on par with successful carbon-reduction efforts. Now, we can measure our progress toward using chemicals and chemistry — along with energy — in harmony with planetary boundaries and healthy life on Earth."

These metrics are expected to be game-changing for a variety of stakeholders:

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.

"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,” says SCI Fund Advisory Board member Stacy Glass. “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 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 free from toxic chemical pollution where chemicals are created and used in harmony with healthy life. Organizations interested in adopting safer chemistry are encouraged to visit www.saferchemistryimpactfund.org or contact the Fund Director at [email protected].