Bluesign Technologies is expanding its chemical compliance coverage to the leather sector to fuel more sustainable supply chain practices.
The sustainable textiles solutions provider, in collaboration with leading chemical supplier Stahl, extended its Bluesign Bluefinder for leather chemistry, in a move to promote better chemical management in the leather and footwear sectors.
“The Bluesign Bluefinder has been proven as a functional tool to detox a supply chain covering the complete textile production process,” Kurt Schlaepfer, head of customer relation management at Bluesign Technologies, said. “We thoroughly assess the chemical products with on-site verified data and practice oriented risk assessment including hazard assessment and exposure scenario calculations to ensure their compliance to strict limits regarding ecological and toxicological properties and risks.”
Established in 2002, the Bluesign Bluefinder is an online safe chemical product list for the leather and textile industries. The list’s search engine contains data on more than 10,000 Bluesign certified chemical products that comply with the Bluesign criteria out of roughly 18,000 assessed chemicals. The list, which includes stakeholders from the global apparel, footwear and leather industries, helps them effectively manage chemicals and select safer chemical alternatives for their supply chains.
Bluesign Bluefinder suggests more than 60 alternatives to perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) so businesses can remove harmful substances from consumer products. In addition, Bluesign Bluefinder includes the compliance requirements of the European Union Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals, a regulation that addresses the potential impacts of chemical substances in the European Union and the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals, which proposes harmonized hazard communication elements, including labels, for chemicals.
To certify chemicals for Bluesign Bluefinder, chemical companies must undergo a Bluesign assessment that includes an onsite inspection and a corrective action plan to fulfill Bluesign’s manufacturing facility criteria. Once chemical companies implement the steps suggested by Bluesign and fully comply with Bluesign’s regulations, they are then eligible to have their chemical products assessed and potentially registered under the list.
Bluesign offers a Product Stewardship Program to help chemical companies achieve chemical assessments and Bluesign certification. The Product Stewardship Program helps chemical companies align their data and acts as a prerequisite for chemical companies that desire Bluesign approval for their chemical products. The up-to-date Product Stewardship Program equips chemical companies with relevant environmental and consumer safety information, so they can ramp up their chemical compliance initiatives and potentially receive Bluesign certification.