To know where you are going, you have to know where you have been. For the third year in a row, the Chemical Footprint Project (CFP) scores businesses on their chemicals management, benchmarking their efforts and progress as they reduce their use of hazardous substances and select safer alternatives. Last week, the CFP released its report card for 2017, and the numbers are positive.
Over the years, 43 companies have participated in the CFP Survey, answering a set of questions regarding their chemicals management. The survey is divided into four main pillars: developing comprehensive chemicals policies, knowing the chemistry of their products, measuring their chemical footprint, and being public about their journey. The companies get a score between 0 and 100 in each of these areas.
The report shows improvement across all four pillars.
The average scores have increased continuously over the last three years, from an average of 41% of possible points in 2015 to 59% in 2017. Not only have strategies and chemical knowledge improved quite significantly, the report also shows that the willingness to make the results public is on the rise.
“Chemical management is a very important part of corporate sustainability issues”
“The Chemical Footprint Project has shown that chemical management is a very important part of corporate sustainability issues. The project also brings to light information which has, so far, been hidden from the public”, says Sonja Haider, Senior Business and Investors Advisor at ChemSec.
Many of the companies that took part in the 2017 CFP Survey are well-known brands, including Walmart, Levi Strauss and HP. The participating companies had annual revenues totalling over $677 billion.
“The report acts as a motivation to keep working for a world free of hazardous chemicals”
The Chemical Footprint Project also has the support of their signatories, comprised of investors and other influential players, with $2.78 trillion in assets under management (AUM) and $700 billion in purchasing power. These signatories encourage companies in their sphere of influence to participate in the CFP Survey and move away from hazardous chemicals.
“I applaud Clean Production Action for their work, and for a report, that is not only an interesting read, but also a motivation to keep working for a world free of hazardous chemicals”, concludes Sonja Haider.
