Banned IF Born Before 1970

Yesterday the long expected announcement on Green Indexing came out from Wal-Mart. This announcement by Matt Kistler, W-M Senior VP of Sustainability, will be mistakenly considered initially a change of direction. But the intent has always been to find a responsible way to effect development of green sustainable products. The Green Nose has stated that the ability to establish an index with known criteria is possible with fragrance chemicals, an important ingredient additive in nearly every leading consumer and institutional cleaners.

What is the impact when Wal-Mart announces an indexing programs to the manufacturing companies and the chemical supply chain? One, despite protests, real costs for specialized components will go down slightly. Initially, learning new analytical methods,  plus regulatory reporting will have a resource impact but reduced inventory of acceptable formula materials and resultant market forces will succumb to fair pricing. Wal-Mart is negating any manufacturer's threatened price increase argument by saying they will pass on the cost if necessary.

Two: product index labeling will result in chemical transparency and consumers will have another level of choice and personal benefit. Will transparency ruin confidentiality? No, because product intellectual protections (IP) are already in place and enforceable if a company is harmed. IP were necessary because competitive products are easily analyzed and reversed engineered in any modernly equipped lab. Leading formulators have recently set up ingredient disclosure summaries on their websites.

Three: toxicologist, environmentalist, and marketers do agree that prevention is the only acceptable environmental creed to follow. Buzz phrases like eco-babble are only stall tactics while industry self-regulators cry for standards and definitions.  

Not surprising, almost all of the preeminent industry regulators who participated in the dialogue were never educated in environmental sciences. That is why Non Government Organizations as well the EPA play a vital role in the process.

Wal-Mart in their releases has assessed that their program may take years to fully implement. Current programs in Europe are still gestating and differ with political boundaries. But the Wal-Mart goal is very noble and meant to effectively serve their target consumer and a global economy in the next decade. This is an opportunity to eliminate two key concerns found in certain fragrance materials. That is endocrine disruptor's and aquatic toxins that enter our waterways from cleaners that are rinsed down the drain. 

If you were born before 1970, you fumbled your chance for real leadership, stewardship and responsibility for clean waterways for your children. Your wisdom and experiences will now become a reflection on possibilities. High praise to Wal-Mart to support green sustainable chemistry for the market place. 

 

Signal From The Nose

CleanGredients, a long standing sponsor and supporter of green chemistry, announced on July 1 that the EPA's DfE Screen for Fragrances Human Health Criteria is launched. This beneficial program will guide fragrance creators into safe standards. The criteria for Environmental Fate & Toxicity will be included as soon as the final wording is parsed by the fragrance TAC's (technical action committee) participants. [The Green Nose is a TAC member since October 2007] What does this all mean? The adoption of DfE standards will mean that manufacturer's and their suppliers will have access to specific guidelines from the government and sponsoring suppliers in developing new products that reduce their impact on the environment and human sensitization.

I now find myself reflecting on the TAC's commendable efforts to bring the fragrance screen to a purposeful reality.  It poses questions of self assessment and value to the committee purpose such as, "What product experience did you bring?  Was your "voice",  industry perspective, bias, talent or lack of it, an influence?  What now has been gained, how do we move forward and guide others.

When I was at the recent conference on Sustainable Fragrances for Cleaners, I heard many self-conscious remarks from highly regarded scientists as they dealt with their own interests, purpose or "reflexive modernization." I also heard several snarky remarks on the authenticity of modeling chemical fate, even though one presentation on modeling tripled the endpoint validations that currently exist in the industry data.

As a blogger, I am not influenced by editorial practices like a reporter. The meaning of this blog is not only what it says,  but also the way the blogger says it. Therefore, dear Fragrance industry executives, my signal from the noise, is stop justifying past positions and worrying about anti-fragrance messages. Prepare for client formulators who do need to revise most of their product offerings and increase their market share.

Start your work now before someone launches a product called "I Can't Believe This Is a Cleaner Without a Fragrance."