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Newsletter March 8, 2020

BizNGO in 2020 – join us on the journey to safer chemicals

Join BizNGO!

BizNGO provides a trusted and safe space for business, environmental, and government leaders to collaborate in developing strategies and practices to advance the development and use of safer chemicals and sustainable materials. We do this through an annual meeting and three work groups:

To join any of these work groups, contact us at moreinfo@bizngo.org. For details on each work group, see below. Each work group meets 10 times per year for 60 minutes for each meeting, and also at the two-day Annual Meeting.

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Chemicals Management Work Group

Why Join: Engage in chemical footprinting—including definitions, metrics, best practices, and application in the Chemical Footprint Project Survey. Additionally, the Chemicals Management Work Group creates resources that simplify and clarify leadership work in chemicals management.

Projects for 2020:

Finalize manufacturing chemical footprint metric based on pilots with 3-5 manufacturers
Address thorny issues in the Chemical Footprint Project (CFP) Survey
Plan for 2021 Chemical Footprinting Summit

Highlights from 2019 BizNGO Annual Meeting:

4^th Annual Chemical Footprint Project (CFP) Survey Results
- Cheri Peele at Clean Production Action and report co-author presented key findings from the report
- CFP Signatories—Caroline Boden at Mercy Investment Services, Inc. and Mellissa Nguyen at Vizient, Inc.—highlighted the value of the Survey to their organizations
Next Steps in Chemical Footprinting: Cheri Peele moderated a roundtable discussion with Alexandra McPherson of the Investor Environmental Health Network, and CFP co-founders Tim Greiner of Pure Strategies and Mark S. Rossi of Clean Production Action on how businesses, investors, and NGOs are integrating chemical footprinting into their organizations and brainstormed ideas for science-based targets for chemicals and health
For all presentations go to https://www.bizngo.org/conference/2019-presentations

Work Group Co-Chairs:

Boma Brown-West, Environmental Defense Fund
Cheri Peele, Clean Production Action

For more information contact: c heri@cleanproduction.org.

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Hazard Assessment & Decision Making Work Group

Why Join:

Address pain points and create solutions to refine the science and practice of hazard assessment in decision-making
Promote best practices and develop resources that advance and clarify the practice of hazard assessment and the application of GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals in evaluating, designing, and selecting safer ingredients and products
Discuss and make recommendations for the effective integration of hazard assessment in decision-making frameworks including alternatives assessments, standards, ecolabels, purchasing specifications, restricted and acceptable substance lists, campaigns, and regulations

Projects for 2020:

Endocrine activity
Chemical classes
GreenScreen in standards
Hazard assessment in and relation to other tools and frameworks

Highlights from 2019 BizNGO Annual Meeting Included Panels on:

Chemical Classes—Trends in Science, Policy and Procurement—Mark S. Rossi of Clean Production Action chaired this two-part session to discuss the value of chemical classes in supporting informed decision-making and avoiding regrettable substitutes. The panel discussed needs, challenges, and best practices through examples of ongoing work in science, regulations, purchasing, and tools development:
- The Emerging Science of Specifying and Managing Chemical Classes with presentations by:
  - Veena Singla, Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at UCSF
  - Shari Franjevic, Clean Production Action
  - Teresa McGrath, Healthy Building Network
- Eliminating Chemical Classes through Procurement & Regulations
  - Liz Harriman, Toxics Use Reduction Institute at UMass Lowell
  - Laurie Valeriano, Toxic-Free Future
  - Joel Sigler, Kaiser Permanente
Endocrine Disruptors (EDCs) and Informed Decision-Making—Nicole Acevedo of Elavo Mundi Solutions chaired this panel to discuss the importance of considering endocrine activity in chemical selection, the state of the science and challenges posed, state of regulations, and the ongoing work by the BizNGO Hazard Assessment Work Group to refine GreenScreen criteria with presentations by:
- Margaret Whittaker, ToxServices
- Paul Ashford, Anthesis
- Laura Vandenberg, UMass Amherst
Safer Chemicals in the Circular Economy: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Case of PFAS in Food Service Ware—Beverley Thorpe of Clean Production Action chaired this panel with presentations by:
- Sue Chiang, Center for Environmental Health
- Jen Jackson, San Francisco Department of the Environment
- Jeff Bassett, Footprint
For all presentations go to https://www.bizngo.org/conference/2019-presentations

Work Group Co-Chairs:

Nicole Acevedo, Elavo Mundi Solutions
Shari Franjevic, Clean Production Action
Antonio Quiñones-Rivera, GOJO Industries
Cory Robertson, HP Inc.

For more information contact: s hari@cleanproduction.org.

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ASBC-BizNGO Safer Chemicals Public Policy Work Group

BizNGO is excited to announce a new partnership with the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) in public policy engagement. See our announcement of this new initiative at https://www.bizngo.org/resources/entry/new-asbc-bizngo-partnership.

We will kick off our new partnership in March 2020.

Work Group Co-Chairs:

David Levine, American Sustainable Business Council
Mark S. Rossi, Clean Production Action

Our work with ASBC will follow the contours of past BizNGO policy work, which included:

Engaging in public policy initiatives at the state and federal level, including:
- Transparency initiatives: a) engaging in details important to transparency policies; b) tracking and engaging in initiatives as appropriate; and c) state initiatives, including: fragrances, flavorings, beauty & personal care ingredients
- PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) policy initiatives
- California Safer Consumer Product Regulation implementation
- Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) / Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act implementation
- US EPA Safer Choice Program
- Federal Cosmetics Safety Bills
Featuring in-depth analyses by policy experts
Approaching policy initiatives in a non-partisan, balanced, objective, and technical manner

For more information contact: mark@cleanproduction.org.

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We look forward to your participation.

Mark S. Rossi, PhD
Chair and Founder, BizNGO
Executive Director, Clean Production Actiond

Resources

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Upcoming Event

Apr

Webinar: Insights from the 7th Chemical Footprint Project Report

April 11, 2025

The Chemical Footprint Project gives companies across all industries tools to evaluate their progress in reducing Chemicals of High Concern and proactively identify opportunities for further action,

- Joyce Taylor

CFP greatly simplifies the complex issue of chemicals management. We now have a tool that is available for plugging into purchasing decisions.

- Monica Nakielski

Hazardous chemicals “present reputational, regulatory, and reformulation risks across a broad range of industry sectors. Investors need to understand how companies are meaningfully managing these risks.

- Susan Baker

CFP is a market differentiator and provides a competitive advantage for business leaders. This new tool will add a level of transparency and help companies mitigate reputational and regulatory risks and exploit opportunities afforded by moving to safer chemicals.

- Roger McFadden

The Investor Environmental Health Network welcomes the launch of the Chemical Footprint Project. For too long chemicals and health have been missing pieces in Environmental Social Governance (ESG) assessments. Now we have a tool that investors can use to fill in this critical information.

- Richard Liroff

Participating in the Chemical Footprint Project pilot led us to develop a formal chemical policy that will be included on our website. Our chemicals policy and its successful implementation is the very heart of our company philosophy.