SOMERVILLE, MASS.—You’ve heard of a company’s carbon footprint. Now it’s time for the chemical footprint. Despite growing regulatory efforts, businesses around the world continue to use chemicals of high concern to human health and environment. Formaldehyde and toxic phthalates in flooring are but two examples of hazardous chemicals that have caused health issues for consumers and financial and reputation problems for companies and their products.
Now, a growing number of companies are leading the way by voluntarily phasing out toxic chemicals, demonstrating how they can operate just as efficiently using safer alternatives. However, until now investors and companies have had no independently verifiable, transparent way to document progress.
On Friday, June 19, Clean Production Action with the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production and Pure Strategies rolled out the Chemical Footprint Project (CFP) Assessment Tool—the first-ever common metric for publicly benchmarking chemical use and management.
The Chemical Footprint Project is backed by more than $1.1 trillion in purchasing and investment power. Signatories include Marriott, Aviva Investors, BNP Paribas IP, Boston Common Asset Management, Trillium Asset Management, Dignity Health, Kaiser Permanente, Staples and many others.
On the Path to Safer Chemicals
“The Chemical Footprint Project gives voice to the demands of investors, institutional purchasers, and retailers for companies to be on the path to safer chemicals in products,” says Dr. Mark Rossi, co-director of Clean Production Action. “Major companies across sectors are already asking their stakeholders to use the Chemical Footprint tool to measure and improve their progress to safer chemicals.”
The Chemical Footprint Project’s Assessment Tool emerged through years of collaboration at BizNGO with leading firms in the retail, healthcare, government, building product, electronics, apparel, cleaning, beauty and personal care, and investment sectors. The Chemical Footprint tool asks 20 questions in four key areas:
1. Management: what are a company’s chemical policies and strategies;
2. Inventory: how much a company knows about chemicals in its products;
3. Footprint: what is a company’s chemical footprint and what steps are being taken to substitute toxic chemicals with safer alternatives;
4. Disclosure: how much information on chemicals the company publicly discloses.
Companies will have the option of whether or not to make their score public or hold it privately. For the Chemical Footprint Project Signatories, this new initiative provides a long-awaited tool for engaging potential suppliers.
Brad Colton, Senior Director—Strategic Projects and Global Procurement, Marriott International, said, “Marriott is committed to providing healthy environments for our associates, our guests and our communities. We recognize the challenge of moving to safer chemicals requires innovative solutions. The Chemical Footprint Project’s focus on assessing and improving chemical management practices provides a way to engage our suppliers and drive improvement throughout our supply chain.”
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