Chemical Technology January 2015

Comment

Guidance on environmental footprint of products

T he World Business Council for Sustain- able Development (WBCSD) recently published a new guide designed to help chemical industry customers and stake- holders make more informed, sustainable choices. Entitled ‘Life Cycle Metrics for Chemical Products’, the guidance document is the result of a collaboration between lead- ing chemical companies that are part of the WBCSD’s ‘Reaching Full Potential’ project. Focused on life cycle assessment methods, a key objective of the new guide is to provide and communicate material information about the environmental footprint of products that customers and stakeholders can trust and compare. A key role of the chemical industry is to enable improved sustainability across value chains, a principle fully embraced by the mem- ber companies of the Reaching Full Potential project. However, in order to get true market pull for more sustainable products and realize the WBCSD’s Vision 2050 – 9 billion people living well within the limits of the planet – there is a clear need to communicate reliable infor- mation on a wide range of issues. Reaching Full Potential companies will con- tinue to advance developments in sustainabil- ity metrics for the chemical sector. The Project is currently developing a guide for companies to assess the impact and benefits of chemical products from a social perspective. This work was launched in early 2014 and is expected to be ready by late 2015. Peter Bakker, President and CEO of the WBCSD, said: “Developing a common guide for the environmental assessment of products

is an important step forward in the continued progress of the chemical sector activities at the WBCSD. This will allow chemical sector companies to communicate with a common language to companies downstream, and help scaling-up solutions to enable greater sustain- ability in value chains.” Feike Sijbesma, CEO of Royal DSM NV and Co-Chair of the WBCSD Reaching Full Potential Project, commented: “Our industry is commit- ted to addressing our environmental footprint and to combating climate change in order to create amore sustainable world. With this clear guide, which we have developed collectively, we are taking the next step. At DSM we continu- ously pursue opportunities to further integrate and measure sustainability into everything we do. We use our bright science to innovate and create a brighter world.” Peter Nieuwenhuizen, Director of Innova- tion and Partnerships at AkzoNobel, one of the companies that compiled the guide, said: “This is an extremely valuable document that will enable us to provide credible information about how chemical value chains impact on and contribute to sustainability.” Member companies and partners of the chemical sector Reaching Full Potential project are: AkzoNobel; BASF; DSM; Cefic; Eastman Chemical; Evonik Industries; Henkel; SABIC; SCG Chemicals Company; Solvay; Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Company, supported by PricewaterhouseCoopers. For more information contact Irge Olga Aujouannet on tel: +41 22 839 3129 or email: aujouannet@wbcsd.org.

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Chemical Technology • January 2015