Proactively adopting a sustainable chemicals management program is a company’s best response to ever-increasing requirements and demands from consumers, supply chain partners and regulators. A key challenge for firms employing this approach is accessing the necessary chemical information. Software systems designed to meet this need can save resources, support improved chemical selection for the design of safer products and allow more rapid response to changing market demands for ingredients and materials.

Keeping up with growing demands for chemical data using spreadsheets or simple databases will become increasingly unrealistic. Managers need tools that enable them to organize, analyze and make decisions about chemicals and materials in their supply chains and products — and they need to do this quickly and accurately

The states of Washington and California are breaking new ground by providing consumers with information on potentially harmful chemicals in the products they buy and use on a daily basis.

In June 2013, air pollution levels in Malaysia and Singapore reached record highs, closing businesses. The cause? Thousands of fires set by both plantation managers and small farmers in neighboring Indonesia to clear land to plant oil palm trees.