Apple Joins ChemFORWARD as Co-Design Partner, Boosting Sustainable Tech Innovation
The Cupertino, California-based technology giant is one of the world’s most innovative in sustainability, leading initiatives on clean energy and no carbon footprint and working to source 100 percent recycled materials. The company’s Smarter Chemistry efforts include regulated substances specifications, toxicological assessments of materials selected for Apple products, and a protocol for prioritizing chemicals of concern in the electronics industry.
ChemFORWARD and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition Launch the Safe + Circular Materials Collaborative
“This partnership with the Sustainable Packaging Coalition will not only help support companies seeking the material building blocks that will make packaging safe for humans and the environment across the product life cycle; it will seek to identify and activate the supply chain drivers to create lasting systems change,” said ChemFORWARD Executive Director Stacy Glass.
Credo Beauty Joins ChemFORWARD as Codesign Partner, Accelerating Supply Chain Transformation
“Adding The Dirty List™ to our globally harmonized repository of safer alternatives makes it even easier for brands, formulators, and other decision-makers in beauty and personal care to eliminate chemicals of concern, avoid regrettable substitutions, and design safer from the beginning,” said Stacy Glass, ChemFORWARD’s executive director. “By strengthening our work with the partnership of a leader like Credo’s, we can make even more progress toward ending toxic chemical exposure and advancing health equity.”
ChemFORWARD and ChemSec Marketplace Collaborate to Boost Availability of Safer Alternatives
“We foresee the synergies of this partnership potently accelerating industry adoption of safer alternatives across multiple sectors,” said Stacy Glass, executive director of ChemFORWARD.
ChemFORWARD’s comprehensive assessments of chemical hazards and alternatives complements ChemSec Marketplace’s superlative cataloguing and display of available alternatives. This exciting partnership will connect Marketplace’s users to full chemical hazard assessments while also linking ChemFORWARD’s assessments to Marketplace entries.
Kimberly Shenk Joins ChemForward Advisory Board, Bringing Data Science and Consumer Products Expertise
“Kimberly’s experience in growing companies that blend beauty products, data science, and expertise in working with complex chemical supply chains will provide unrivaled benefit to our work to build and curate a transparent, highest quality collection of safer chemical alternatives, clearing the way for safer products for everyone,” said Stacy Glass, executive director of ChemFORWARD.
ChemFORWARD Publishes Safer Alternatives to Beauty and Personal Care Chemicals of Concern
ChemFORWARD worked with SEPHORA and other codesign partners to develop 11 portfolios of safer alternatives for preservatives, benzophenones, silicones, and ethanolamines. The collection represents the beginning of a comprehensive library of safer ingredients for beauty and personal care manufacturers.
Environmental Defense Fund Puts Safer Product Innovation to the Test
The information produced from this trial has the power to help companies go beyond simply avoiding chemicals of known concern to identifying and using verified safer ingredients.
“ChemFORWARD is exactly the type of data-driven resource that is needed to scale safer product innovation,” said Boma Brown-West, senior manager of consumer health at EDF. “With its readily accessible information, we can get closer to a future where every product, on every store shelf, is made with demonstrably safer alternatives.”
ChemFORWARD’s Free Portfolio Offers Users Trial of Safer Solvents
ChemFORWARD has published a free demonstration portfolio to allow product designers, manufacturers, and chemical formulators to explore our approach to presenting chemical hazard information. Anyone can log in to test-drive ChemFORWARD’s unique tool for understanding safer alternatives at a glance as well as in rich detail.
2020 Q1 Retrospective and Outlook
Our principal focus for this year is to populate our repository and we have made very exciting progress with 61 chemical hazard assessments of safer alternatives in progress and 100 funded against our full-year goal of 200. It is extremely rewarding to see the infrastructure we built last year functioning well. We have also deepened our bench, enriched our offering and strengthened our tools and processes. And the lessons we take from the first quarter offer clear and encouraging guidance on honing our attention for the balance of the year.
ChemFORWARD and Sephora Work Together to Discover Safer Beauty Ingredients
ChemFORWARD is thrilled to announce that Sephora has joined its collaborative effort as a co-design partner. Sephora joins leaders from diverse industries which share a commitment to creating a marketplace where chemistry is safer and the potential of circular design is fully realized.
As the first major prestige beauty retailer to establish a public-facing chemicals policy to proactively strengthen ingredient safety and transparency, Sephora is also investing in identifying safer alternatives and making those alternatives widely available to its supply chain and beyond. ChemFORWARD has also added Sephora’s restricted-substances list to its free MaterialWise screening tool, allowing anyone to screen their products for chemicals to avoid in beauty products.
Google’s Mike Werner Joins ChemFORWARD Advisory Board, lending Technical, Industry, and Circular Economy perspective
Werner contributes rich experience with the technology industry, chemical hazard assessment and circular economy to ChemFORWARD’S mission of enabling a safe, circular and more equitable economy. Werner’s mission at Google is to eliminate toxic chemicals from consumer products and drive higher environmental performance and sustainability of product design. Previously at Google, he led the product sustainability, biocompatibility, and environmental compliance team for Google’s consumer hardware division.
Heine Named Vice President of Association for the Advancement of Alternatives Assessment
In this role, Heine will help guide the professional association dedicated to advancing the science, practice and policy of alternatives assessment and informed substitution. The Lowell, Massachusetts-based organization, known as A4, is an interdisciplinary community of researchers and practitioners from government agencies, academia, industry and non-profits working collaboratively to accelerate the transition to the use of safer chemicals, materials, processes and products.
ChemFORWARD and Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute Announce Partnership to Accelerate Better Materials Chemistry
ChemFORWARD and the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute are working together to embed the Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Product Standard Material Health methodology into the ChemFORWARD repository.
ChemFORWARD, which is building the first globally harmonized repository of chemical hazard assessments and alternatives, will use the C2C Certified Material Health methodology to offer companies a uniquely powerful tool for optimizing the material health of their products.
ChemFORWARD and EDF Partner in Safer Product Innovation Webinar
ChemFORWARD is excited to participate in a webinar discussing safer product innovation with the Environmental Defense Fund on Dec. 17. Dr. Lauren Heine, ChemFORWARD’s director of safer materials & data integrity, and Stacy Glass, executive director, will join Alissa Sasso for a conversation about innovating safer ingredients and products, allowing companies to stay ahead of regulatory scrutiny, manage business risk and build consumer trust.
ChemFORWARD Launches First Portfolio, Offering Comprehensive Assessments of Alternatives to Hazardous Plasticizers
ChemFORWARD is pleased to announce that its first portfolio of data on alternatives to ortho-phthalate, which are often referred to simply as phthalate, plasticizers of concern has been posted and is available for subscription. The organization’s initial pilot project compiled hazard assessments for 10 safer plasticizers.
ChemFORWARD Initiates First Pilot: Safer Plasticizers
ChemFORWARD has selected its first pilot program, assessing alternatives for ortho-phthalates of concern. Phthalates are used as plasticisers in materials from vinyl flooring to food-service gloves. The pilot will assemble a portfolio of full hazard assessments viewable in multiple hazard formats including the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals and the Cradle to Cradle Material Health Methodology. The portfolio will offer manufacturers the first repository of comparable information to make decisions about their use. The pilot also features a secure platform to access the information and a fair, equitable structure for sharing the expense of comprehensive assessments to reduce overall cost.
ChemFORWARD Adds Experienced Technical Director to Leadership Team
Josh brings a wealth of experience in managing scalable software projects and a proven track record of guiding highly complex projects to success. From startups to the largest global enterprises, his key strength is cultivating user-centered design and engagement by being proactive with customers and end-users, foundations of success for ChemFORWARD.
Lauren Heine Joins ChemFORWARD, Enhancing Science, Data and Collaboration Capabilities
Heine brings decades of experience and leadership in green chemistry and engineering, alternatives assessment and multi-stakeholder collaboration which will accelerate ChemFORWARD’s efforts to enable a prosperous, toxic-free future for people, the planet and commerce. She is the ideal technical leader to drive ChemFORWARD’s mission to equip industry leaders who want to do the right thing with reliable access to authoritative material health data.
H&M Joins ChemFORWARD Co-Design Partners, Adding Global Fashion-Industry Experience
Through the partnership, H&M will help ChemFORWARD refine and scale its chemical-hazard screening and assessment tools to be the most trusted source of verified, actionable data available to the fashion industry as well as other global manufacturers.
MacArthur Foundation Design Guide Now Features ChemFORWARD’s MaterialWise Chemical Screening Tool
The new modules feature ChemFORWARD’S free screening tool, MaterialWise powered by the Healthy Building Network’s Pharos database. The tool offers users full access to more than 100,000 known chemicals of concern, along with information about common uses and exposures and why certain hazards matter. Modules guide users in such undertakings as running their own product-redesign workshop or shifting an organization’s business strategy to prioritize material health.