Be the hero of your own story: Accelerate product innovation with reliable data

Fast. We live in a world where everything comes down to speed. Unfortunately, however, valuable innovation does not abide by the timeline that we set for ourselves. Every company across the globe seeks to innovate – constantly – by delivering new product lines and expanding into growing markets and areas of the world.

In our field, innovation isn't just about creating something new; it is about fulfilling customer expectations, namely that the products produced are not only top quality; they are sustainable, environmentally friendly, and of course compliant.

Proving that something is sustainable may, at first glance, appear to be easy. You might hear your colleague say, “we need GREENGUARD certification,” “we should be Fairtrade Certified,” “we should meet the Global Organic Textile Standard,” and so on. But how does your company prove that it deserves such certifications? How does your company/brand/product show that it not only complies with mandatory standards, but also meets voluntary standards as part of corporate Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) initiatives?

The answer is that your company needs tangible, reliable data to support your claims of sustainability. This data needs to lead to digestible information that all stakeholders can understand, including investors and consumers.

Accessible, accurate chemical data unlocks your company's ability to track sustainability metrics throughout the entire supply chain and quickly pull up information for regulators and stakeholders interested in your environmental footprint. Accessible data also allows your employees to access critical safety information when working with regulated chemicals so that they may protect themselves in their daily work or when there is an emergency spill.

There are many challenges that you might face when it comes to data collection:

1. You must know what chemicals you are working with. Knowledge about what chemicals (and mixtures) are in your products and are used at each step of the product pipeline is critical because, quite obviously, you cannot protect against hazards without knowing what chemicals and associated hazards are involved.
2. You must distinguish between inaccurate, obsolete, and unreliable data so that you can report accurately under a variety of environmental regulations (e.g., TSCA).
3. You must develop a system that works for you, most likely involving technology, that houses and organizes your data so that it may be pulled up quickly by stakeholders.

As for innovation, without the data/information to assess your products, you lack necessary input into how your company can modify raw materials, processes, and ultimately its products to meet unique sustainability goals.

Why chemical data is the backbone of compliance

Many compliance obligations abound when your company is working on products that are manufactured, sold, imported, and exported internationally.

Here is a quick hypothetical: Your company's main manufacturing site is located in the state of Idaho (US). This is where all of the product components come together to make the final product. There are three parts to creating your product. Part A is manufactured by a subcontractor in China. Part B is manufactured in Canada. Part C is created in France. Your product components travel to Idaho for final assembly. You need many pieces of information to have an accurate picture of the chemicals used in each step of the process.

For instance, what chemicals does China use to make Part A? Where does China source the raw materials it uses? What is the compliance status of the subcontractor in China for both environmental and safety concerns? Do the employees at the worksite in China have Safety Data Sheets (SDS) that inform them of hazards? Do the Chinese laws require SDS? And even if not, should your company require them as the purchaser of the subpart? Finally, what procedures are used on site to create Part A? If chemicals are mixed together for an output, does that change their regulatory status?

The challenge of chemical compliance

There is much to track in this hypothetical scenario and your company is facing strict, detailed, reporting requirements under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in the US, Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals in the EU, the systemic standardization of chemical classification and labelling such as the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), as well as other more localized, country-specific requirements for each jurisdiction in which your company operates and import products.

In addition to longstanding regulatory requirements for reporting, there are newly developed reporting schemes, such as The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive that you must be aware of and compile information for.

Even at the SDS level, there are specific requirements that parse out very detailed information to help keep track of a variety of hazards.

With the changing sands of regulatory policies, it is vital to view chemical data as the backbone of your company work processes.

Why chemical data is the backbone of innovation

It is nearly impossible to innovate from scratch. Innovation requires:

1. Knowledge of what has been done
2. Knowledge of past outcomes/results
3. Knowledge of what may be possible in the future
4. Knowledge regarding how to connect the dots between the current state and future state in product development.

In terms of sustainability, this knowledge is gained by linking compliance reporting information with the corresponding chemicals used in the process.

Is there a safer alternative available that will deliver the same (or higher) results for the company (e.g., make the product safer and deliver it to customers faster)? There is no way to know the answer to this question if you do not have an accurate grasp on what chemicals are used and when they are used in the process of creating your product.

This is why it is even more important for companies to organize chemical data in a simple-to-use, holistic, and easily accessible format. The reality of our time is that the best solutions often involve software that can retain chemical data information and, even, perhaps sync with other related software components to provide answers to the myriad questions that can arise at any moment from regulators, investors, employees, and other stakeholders.

In this way, a software solution that provides on-demand access to accurate chemical data empowers product developers to adjust to market changes swiftly. Concerns revolve not only about how to innovate effectively, but with how to do so quickly to ensure time-to-market productivity thus securing a reputation as a leader in the field.

3E in action: Innovating with speed and precision using 3E

The 3E portfolio is designed to assist with both regulatory compliance and product innovation. Without going to every detailed feature here (you can request a consultation for those details), we think it wise to demonstrate how our products can be used to track chemical data throughout your supply chain.

Scenario 1: The year is 1998. You are a new product developer in the cosmetics field considering how to turn the artistic design of several new lipstick colors into the actual product (lipstick) that will end up on the shelves of stores in the US and abroad.

You have the following:

1. A list of chemicals used to formulate the lipstick liquid itself
2. A list of chemicals used to produce the lipstick wand
3. A  list of chemicals used to produce the casing where the lipstick resides, and
4. A list of chemicals used for packaging the lipstick.

You need to compile SDS for each chemical involved. You have stacks of papers and excel spreadsheets that contain this information. If you are being diligent, then you are likely drowning in papers at this point. This makes it extremely hard to find what you need quickly, to check the compliance status of chemical reporting for each chemical and mixture, and to stay up-to-date on new regulations.

Scenario 2: The year is 2025. You are a new product developer in the cosmetics field considering the artistic design and chemical composition of several new lipstick colors that will end up on the shelves of stores in the US and abroad.

You have a software system, such as 3E Protect, that helps you in many ways:

• It helps you to keep track of regulated chemicals used in each stage of your product production (e.g., liquid lipstick component, casing, etc.).
• It automates highly complex mathematical equations.
• 3E customers have accessed over 28 million SDSs.
• It keeps you on top of regulatory alerts so that when chemicals are added to or removed from your products, or when chemicals that you use are newly regulated, your company can confidently stay in compliance. This is particularly important when a new lipstick color requires the use of a chemical or mixture that you haven't used before. Similarly, when your company “goes-to-market” in varying jurisdictions, there is  a quick way to assess local regulatory requirements.
• It ensures that you are providing the latest version of a SDS so that your employees have accurate information for which to base safety decisions upon.
• It allows you to use multiple software products to understand compliance across your supply chain.

Using related software (like 3E Exchange) you can achieve increased transparency. For instance, software can help – via supplier surveys-determine which chemicals are used in each step of the process.

Finally, when products move throughout retail networks for distribution, software can match Digital Product Passports (DPPs) with products so that those DPPs stay with the products along the entire supply chain. This keeps stakeholders informed quickly about what is in your product, the current compliance status, and the certifications and voluntary sustainability standards that your product meets.

In terms of innovation, if you are asked to improve upon an existing product or to design a related one, you will have the tools to see what products faced the highest barriers to entry due to complex regulatory compliance, and which chemicals used in the product components could have been switched out for safer alternatives.

Empowering teams to focus on what matters most

The key to meeting your company's sustainability goals and achieve innovation is to be proactive rather than reactive. Expected challenges include regulatory changes. However, there are many unexpected challenges that may come your way, such as market disruption, bans on certain chemicals (e.g. types of Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)), and novel sustainability reporting metrics (mandatory or voluntary) that position your company as a leader in the field.

Thus, accessible, accurate chemical data helps to swiftly ensure regulatory compliance and efficiently manage sustainable innovation.