Chemical Technology January 2015

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Comment
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Chemical Technology • January 2015
The 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:
.
Guidance on
environmental footprint
of products
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