How competitors like Dow and BASF, HP and Dell, along with suppliers, universities and NGOs are working together to produce greener chemistry. Here's what they learned.
The latest revision of the world's most widely used framework for corporate sustainability reporting provides an opportunity to push for increased disclosure of companies' efforts to reduce their toxic footprints.
U.S. companies should heed European regulatory and advisory bodies' increasing scrutiny of hazardous chemical mixtures. Most initiatives to restrict chemicals in products and supply chains in the past decade can trace their roots to Europe. And increased knowledge of mixture effects means that levels of chemicals once considered safe when viewed in isolation will no longer be deemed so innocent.
Companies whose products contain certain out-of-favor chemicals can suffer from toxic lockout, and Colgate-Palmolive is among the firms that are moving away from triclosan -- a chemical frequently used in antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers.
Investors have been increasingly pressuring companies to disclose their relationships with trade associations, including political contributions, driven in part by the concern that the associations take advocacy positions on public policy that are contrary to the best business and reputational interests of the companies.
BPA is now a poster child example of a substance that can pose a reputational hazard for companies. Triclosan could become, as Yogi Berra might say, a case of "déjà vu all over again."