Award for development of safe and sustainable chemicals
ProScale, a tool that can be used to assess products' chemical risks from a life cycle perspective, has received an award from Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council. The award, in the category 'Time for Change', recognizes ProScale's contribution to the development of safe and sustainable chemicals.
Tomas Rydberg
"This is excellent news. We have worked to develop the tool so that it is compatible with life cycle assessment and is linked to the legal requirements in the chemicals field. We have about ten companies that have tested the tool with favourable results, and it's great if more companies learn about what it offers", says Tomas Rydberg, expert in life cycle assessment at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.
With the Responsible Care Awards, industry association Cefic recognizes companies and organizations that it believes are contributing to the green transition and a sustainable, resilient and competitive Europe.
"I'm proud to see so many organizations stepping up, with initiatives and tools that not only promote the green and digital transitions, but also secure skilled jobs and contribute to Europe's competitiveness", says Marco Mensink, Director General of Cefic.
ProScale, the winner in the 'Time for Change' category, is designed for use in life cycle assessment (LCA), environmental product declarations (EPD) and product environmental footprints (PEF). It provides an evaluation of chemical risks by way of a scoring system, and can aggregate information from individual chemicals to complete products. ProScale can also be used in conjunction with the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) concept, and information requirements set out in the REACH legislation.
"The tool differs from conventional chemical risk assessment methods in that it combines three aspects: a life-cycle approach, risk- and exposure-based assessment of products, and the ability to aggregate from a chemical to a complete product. For example, indicators from the ProScale methodology can be used to provide quantitative information on chemical risks in products and in the production processes used. We call it 'chemical footprint' because it quantifies chemical risks in a similar way to how the carbon footprint quantifies climate-impacting emissions", says Tomas Rydberg.
The tool has been tested by various industrial sectors with favourable results, and within the IVL-led Mistra SafeChem research programme, where it has been used to assess the risks and human toxicity of two flame retardants, and is now being further developed.
Read more about the Responsible Care Award 2024.
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For more information, contact:
Tomas Rydberg, tomas.rydberg@ivl.se, tel. +46 (0)10-788 68 13
ProScale is a methodology to measure the chemical burden of products and goods from a life cycle perspective. ProScale was initiated in 2016 by a consortium of seven partners: BASF, Covestro AG, Deutsche Bauchemie e.V., Royal DSM N.V., Solvay S.A., IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and Kingspan, with project support from Uetliberg Partners. The above seven have since been joined by Clariant, Dow Chemicals and Merck KGaA. Read more about Proscale. External link, opens in new window.