Measuring a Chemical Footprint

Well established metrics exist for measuring carbon footprints, water footprints and waste footprints.  The field of environmental health lacks a similar unifying metric due to the complexity of chemical toxicity, which encompasses a wide range of health impacts such as carcinogenicity, reproductive or developmental toxicity, endocrine disruption, acute toxicity, and neurotoxicity. CFP addresses the complexity of toxicity by defining and specifying “chemicals of high concern” (CoHCs) and has used this definition to develop a chemical footprint metric.

Chemical footprinting is the process of benchmarking progress away from hazardous chemicals and towards safer alternatives. 

Chemical footprint: total mass of chemicals of high concern (CoHCs) used by an event, organization, service, building, or product.

Chemical footprint of an organization: total mass of chemicals of high concern (CoHCs) in products sold by a company; used in its manufacturing operations, facilities, and by its suppliers; and contained in packaging.  

Chemical of High Concern (CoHC): a carcinogen, mutagen, or developmental/reproductive toxicant; persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substance (PBT); very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB); or any other chemical for which there is scientific evidence of probable serious effects to human health or the environment that give rise to an equivalent level of concern—such as endocrine disruption or neurotoxicity—or a chemical whose breakdown products result in a CoHC that meets any of the above criteria.

This definition of a CoHC aligns with criteria for GreenScreen Benchmark-1, as well as the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). The CFP CoHC Reference List is a static version, updated every two years, of GreenScreen List Translator™ 1 chemicals. In the CFP Survey, responders have the option to measure their chemical footprint using the European Union’s Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern for Authorization (EU Candidate SVHC List).  The EU Candidate SVHC List is a subset of the CFP CoHC Reference List. 

Ideally, a chemical footprint can be calculated by mass of CoHCs. If information on mass is not available, a chemical footprint can also be calculated by count of CoHCs.

Learn more about chemical footprint measurement in the Chemical Footprint webinar series.

For more details on how to calculate a chemical footprint, see question F2 in the CFP Survey Guidance.

Measuring a chemical footprint is best done within a comprehensive chemicals management system.  The CFP Survey embodies best in class chemicals management and incorporates chemical footprinting as a metric.