Product Stewardship
Human health and environmental safety are of utmost importance to Clariant. A thorough safety and risk assessment for each product is at the core of the company’s stewardship approach and forms the starting point for its sustainable chemistry commitment. Handling chemicals responsibly and safely, in alignment with emerging regulations, is key for Clariant’s portfolio risk and opportunity management process. This process enables the company to serve markets with innovative and sustainable products that meet regulatory requirements, while also responding to market trends.
Over the past few years, product stewardship has evolved from a prerequisite for legal compliance into a key enabler for Clariant’s business: It includes gathering, analyzing, and assessing regulatory and emerging issues that are relevant to the marketing of Clariant’s portfolio. Sustainability leadership, however, goes even further than product stewardship, requiring a company to pursue sustainable and innovative solutions proactively.
Therefore, Clariant steers its portfolio toward products that consider all three dimensions of sustainability: performance, people, and planet. Driven by societal demand and policy attention, customers and markets are increasingly aware of – and sensitive to – the sustainability features of products. By screening products along their life cycles and innovation projects against strict and forward-looking sustainability criteria, Clariant aims to develop more sustainable and innovative solutions that support long-term value creation.
Management approach
The Global Product Stewardship Organization, which is part of the GIS, exemplifies Clariant’s global approach to product stewardship. The organization takes care of health, safety, environmental, and other regulatory aspects of the company’s portfolio throughout product life cycles, following clear guidelines underpinned by the Sustainability Policy and process descriptions. In addition, local and regional teams play an integral role by supporting business and external customer communication in all regulatory issues regarding the management of chemicals.
The company has embedded its product stewardship practices into the innovation process, guaranteeing that chemical safety and regulatory compliance are considered throughout the entire product life cycle. Product stewardship ensures adequate communication to consumers on the safe use and handling of products.
Evaluating this management approach includes internal controls, progress-tracking dashboards, benchmarking against peers using external references such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and participation in external networks, discussions, and report reviews.
Regulatory compliance
Clariant monitors regulatory developments worldwide, assesses the impact of changes, and ensures compliance by continuously updating its global state-of-the-art chemical management systems. Proximity to regulatory bodies and participation in expert groups and associations support proactive management. Ensuring regulatory compliance also includes substance registration with relevant regional and national authorities, and supply chain communication on product safety.
Clariant fully commits to the targets of the EU REACH (European Union Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulation. After successfully registering all relevant chemicals in 2018, the company keeps all product dossiers up to date. It continues to cooperate with regulatory bodies and has joined the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC)/European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) cooperation agreement on the review and improvement of REACH registration dossiers.
However, Clariant goes beyond mere compliance: As a signatory to the CEFIC Responsible Care® Declaration, the company supports the Responsible Care® Global Charter. It promotes the program in several countries and has embedded these principles in its sustainability policy, underlining its strong commitment and leadership in sustainable chemistry.
In a CEFIC Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI) project, Clariant’s Global Toxicology & Ecotoxicology Group has initiated and co-developed the AMBIT tool. This open cheminformatics data management system supports companies by facilitating chemical safety assessment. Its database includes more than 450 000 chemical structures and a REACH dataset of 14 570 substances and helps predict the properties of one chemical using the known properties of similar chemicals. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) supports this tool by giving access to nonconfidential registration data.
Countries around the world increasingly introduce chemical regulations similar to the EU REACH Regulation to ensure the safe use of chemicals. Clariant Product Stewardship closely monitors the developments and takes necessary actions to ensure that the portfolio complies with upcoming legislation, among other things. In Turkey, Clariant already preregistered the relevant chemical substances.
Sustainable chemistry commitment
Sustainable chemistry encompasses the design, manufacturing, and use of efficient, effective, and safe chemical products and processes that are more environmentally benign. Clariant maintains roadmaps to drive innovation and uncover sustainability improvement opportunities in the product portfolio.
Clariant is a member of the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD). This initiative brings forward best practices and encourages companies to adopt methodologies for evaluating and steering their product portfolio toward more sustainability. In 2021, Clariant supported the development of a set of sustainability indicators for evaluating product portfolios in the chemical industry.
Portfolio Value Program (PVP)
The Portfolio Value Program (PVP) is the overarching sustainability framework through which Clariant develops its product and innovation project portfolio, including all existing products and the innovation pipeline. As part of the PVP, Clariant screens innovative products before commercialization and revises existing product screenings. This screening covers 36 criteria that consider the entire life cycle and go beyond product safety. Strengths and weaknesses in terms of sustainability are also assessed, comparing product performance against alternatives on the market and against defined sustainability risks and benefits.
In 2021, Clariant revised its Portfolio Value Program and launched an updated set of criteria related to circular economy as well as safe and sustainable chemistry. It includes current sustainability trends and developments, responding to market developments and stakeholder needs. External stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, scientists, nongovernmental organizations, policymakers, and authorities will be consulted for the update of the program in 2022.
Clariant sustainability labels
Based on the PVP criteria, Clariant awards its EcoTain® label to products that show an excellent sustainability profile. Products are nominated by the business units and assessed by an internal EcoTain® panel comprising Sustainability Transformation, Product Stewardship, Innovation, regional experts, and Group Communications. Products awarded the EcoTain® label set an ambitious benchmark that distinguishes products significantly exceeding market standards. These products must have best-in-class sustainability performance on at least one of the 36 criteria screened, offer benefits in several product life cycle phases, and not have any significant adverse environmental or social impacts.
In the course of 2021, 18 products received the distinguishing label, which made a total number of 243 EcoTain® products across all markets. Clariant compared the sustainability performance of these products with their financial performance. On average, sustainability excellence of EcoTain® products goes hand in hand with superior financial performance.
In addition, 78 % of the continuing operations’ portfolio was screened for sustainability performance, of which 68 % met Clariant’s internal sustainability definition. Clariant’s sustainability designators, launched in 2019, enable customers to identify products with key sustainability advantages. This approach has already shown positive results. The »Vita« designator has been given to 53 products, indicating that the product contains natural ingredients, while the »Terra« designator has been given to 54 products, indicating that all product components are based on renewable resources. There are also 21 »Circle« products, highlighting the contribution to circularity in the plastic sector.
PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP
| Continuing operations | Discontinued operations | Total 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EcoTain® awarded products | 18 | 0 | 18 | 24 | 27 | 24 | 18 | |||||||
| EcoTain® withdrawn products | 3 | 0 | 3 | 15 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Cumulative number of EcoTain® products | 209 | 34 | 243 | 228 1 | 204 2 | 193 | 169 | |||||||
| Product portfolio screened for sustainability performance (sales %) | 78 | n.a. | n.a. | 76 2 | 76 2 | 76 | 78 | |||||||
| Screened products meeting internal sustainability definition (%) | 68 | n.a. | n.a. | 67 2 | 68 2 | 68 2 | 70 | |||||||
| Screened products not meeting internal sustainability definition (%) | 10 | n.a. | n.a. | 10 2 | 8 2 | 8 | 8 | |||||||
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1 Restated due to EcoTain® withdrawals
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2 Number refers to continuing businesses only.
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3 Number refers to discontinued businesses.
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Assessment of the health and safety impacts of product and service categories
Clariant focuses on reducing certain hazardous substances in its product portfolio and promoting alternatives that exceed the requirements of the relevant regulations. This approach is particularly important in regions where regulatory action is lagging. In 2021, 78 % of significant product and service categories were assessed for health and safety impacts. Clariant thus covers 2 percentage points more than last year.
Genetically modified organisms
Clariant is committed to providing innovative responses to today’s global challenges, such as the transition to a low-carbon and circular economy and the ever-increasing demands of a growing world population. For Clariant, biotechnology offers unique opportunities to respond to these demands of a modern, globalized society.
Clariant considers the application of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as part of its technology portfolio for more sustainable and more efficient production processes, in particular the use of genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs). Clariant takes a transparent and responsible stance and is committed to the responsible use of GMOs and safe operations in research and innovation, enzyme production, and sourcing of bio-based raw materials. Clariant has set out this stance in its Position Paper Clariant Position on Industrial Biotechnology & Genetically Modified Organisms. In 2021, no more products of the Clariant portfolio contain GMOs.
Requirements for product and service information and labeling
Clariant fosters permanent contact with customers and supports them in applying and using Clariant’s products. Laboratories are available to solve any specific problems. The service offerings also feature comprehensive product information, particularly with respect to optimum and safe application, health risks, waste disposal, and handling of packaging.
Clariant provides safety data sheets to all parties involved in the handling of substances. They contain the relevant substance data, information on safe handling and storage of products, and measures in the event of product spillages, releases, or fire.
The company has a close relationship with its customers and provides all REACH-relevant information. Comprehensive customer support services ensure compliance with the strict communication requirements set by REACH regarding the use of products in the customer chain.
Animal testing
Clariant is committed to research on alternatives to animal testing. The company participated in a project that has been awarded the »Animal Welfare Research Prize« in 2019 by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture because of its potential to reduce or replace animal testing in the long term. The research team developed an alternative test system based on human-induced pluripotent stem cells that uses a genome-wide analysis to measure developmental neurotoxicity (DNT). The test is applicable to chemical exposures and assesses how well an in vitro system reflects the processes in the human body.