Toxic chemical is found everywhere, from household cleaners and appliances to medical devices, paints, packaging, and more. The Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio in February 2023 is just the latest example of our urgent need to develop safer chemical.

However, uniform guidelines on how to create and promote the use of sustainable chemical do not yet exist.

ECHEMI -- The name originated from the abbreviation of “E-commerce of chemical”. ECHEMI is a chemical supply chain service company headquartered in Hong Kong, providing chemical raw materials supply, research and analysis, marketing, distribution, logistics, and E-commerce.

To meet this need and improve human and environmental health, an international panel of experts, co-led by the University of Massachusetts Lowell, has developed new standards to define sustainable chemistry. The program will be presented at a webinar on Wednesday, March 1 at 11 a.m. It lays the foundation for government, industry, academia, and business leaders to develop and support effective policies that guide the production, distribution, and use of environmentally sound chemical products.

Joel Tickner, a professor of public health at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and director of the Sustainable Chemical Catalyst Group at the university's Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, directed the program with Amy Cannon, founder and executive director of Beyond Benign. The committee's work is designed to support the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, which is tasked with developing a consensus definition of sustainable chemistry as a first step toward implementing the Sustainable Chemistry Research and Development Act, which is part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

"UMass Lowell and Beyond Benign have leveraged the relationships of trust and extensive networks built over the past 20 years among academia, industry, government, and nonprofits to establish a definition of sustainable chemistry and develop transparent, measurable standards, Such standards could influence bold policy changes, particularly in research funding, as well as in regulation and investment, Tickner said.

A group of 20 scientists and other professionals, known as the Expert Committee on Sustainable Chemistry (ECOSChem), met in 2022 and drafted a consensus statement that describes sustainable chemistry as "the development and application of chemical, chemical processes and products that benefit present and future generations without harmful effects on humans or ecosystems."

The Committee claims that sustainable chemistry can be achieved when chemical, materials, processes, products, and services are developed successfully to meet the following five criteria:

Equity and justice

transparency

Health and safety implications

Climate and ecosystem impacts

Circularity, or the ability to recover and reuse.