EU Green Deal The EU Is Implementing Its Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability Find Out How bluesign Can Help

EU Green Deal and the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability

The European Green Deal (EGD) is a set of initiatives all 27 EU Member States are committed to with the main goal to transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy.

Within the green deal a specific strategy for chemicals has been developed under the action sector ‘Environment and oceans’ with the title ‘Chemicals strategy for sustainability’. Main objectives are:

• Better protect citizens and the environment
• Boost innovation for safe and sustainable chemicals
• Enable the transition to chemicals that are safe and sustainable by design

Close to a hundred detail actions under several key topics have been defined in the ‘Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability’ in order to achieve the strategy targets. Some of them will have a direct impact on current regulations and directives such as:

• REACH (EC 1907/2006, ‘Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of chemicals’)
• CLP (EC 1272/2008, ‘Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures’)
• IED (2010/75/EU, ‘Industrial Emission Directive’)
• Ecodesign directive (2009/125/EC)
• General product safety directive (2001/95/EC)

We would like to shed light on selected actions in defined focus areas which may have major relevance for the textile chemical / textile industry and propose how bluesign may help the textile supply chain to cope with the expected challenges.

Safe And Sustainable Design

What are key initiatives of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability?

• The EU is developing sustainable-by-design criteria for chemicals to give guidance for substituting substances of concern and to consider sustainability parameters looking at the product’s life cycle.
• Key Performance Indicators to measure the industrial transition towards the production of safe and sustainable chemicals shall be introduced.
• A revision of the industrial emission directive (2010/75/EU) shall help to promote the use of safer chemicals by industry in the EU by requiring on-site risk assessments and by restricting the use of substances of very high concern.

How can bluesign support?

• The bluesign® TOOL may be used as a design aid for safe and sustainable chemistry by chemical companies…
• bluesign is currently extending its CRITERIA for sustainable chemistry…
• To track the transition of chemical companies towards production of safe and sustainable chemistry…
• bluesign’s chemical change program for textile manufacturers aims at replacing non-assessed and non-rated chemistry with safer and sustainable alternatives…

Protection Against Most Harmful Chemicals

What are key initiatives of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability?

• The strategy suggests to develop a roadmap to prioritise carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic substances…
• The intended group restriction approach means that substances would automatically be restricted once there is evidence that they fall into one of the mentioned hazard classes.

How can bluesign support?

The extended set of hazards that will come under scrutiny combined with the intended group restriction approach will pose new challenges to the (chemical) industry…

Endocrine Disruptors

What are key initiatives of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability?

• Propose to establish legally binding hazard identification of endocrine disruptors.
• Ensure that endocrine disruptors are banned in consumer products…
• Strengthen workers’ protection by introducing endocrine disruptors as a category of substances of very high concern under REACH.

How can bluesign support?

By checking chemical formulations with a hazard assessment approach linked to the substance property database ‘bluesign® NAVIGATOR’…

PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances)

What are key initiatives of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability?

• Proposal to restrict PFAS under REACH for all non-essential uses including in consumer products.
• Address PFAS concerns on a global scale through international fora and bilateral policy dialogues.

How can bluesign support?

To be ahead of the upcoming restrictions and to be a driver of detoxing the textile supply chain bluesign plans the following actions:

• As of July 2023 all existing bluesign® APPROVED PFAS containing formulations will be removed from the bluesign® FINDER.
• As of July 2024 all bluesign® APPROVED fabrics treated with PFAS formulations will be removed from bluesign® GUIDE.

Information Requirements (IMPACT)

What are key initiatives of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability?

It will be assessed how to best introduce information requirements under REACH on the overall environmental footprint of chemicals, including on emissions of greenhouse gases.

How can bluesign support?

It is expected that reporting footprint data on chemical product level will become mandatory under REACH. bluesign can assist chemical suppliers to calculate or verify their product related footprint data including GHG emission equivalents (CO₂eq).

Zero Tolerance for Non-Compliance

What are key initiatives of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability?

• Propose to entrust the Commission with the duty to carry out audits in Member States to ensure compliance and enforcement of chemicals legislation.
• Target known areas of high risk of non-compliance, in particular online sales, imported articles, classification and labelling, and restrictions.

How can bluesign support?

The EU has decided to put emphasis on enforcing the REACH regulation with no tolerance for non-compliance. bluesign can help lower risk of non-compliances as SYSTEM PARTNERS are regularly assessed with regard to product safety and legal compliance.