Chemical safety & sustainability go hand in hand

Chemicals make important contributions to our daily life at work and home but they carry risks as well as rewards. We created SDS RiskAssist chemical management software to enable people and the planet to prosper by enjoying the benefits of chemicals while avoiding harm to workers and the environment.

It’s vitally important to ensure that every person handling chemicals is able to understand the hazards and be prepared to protect themselves, those around them and the environment. 

Improper handling and disposal of hazardous chemicals and their byproducts can cause a wide range of occupational diseases. Poor chemical handling practices can also contaminate drinking water resources, soil and other natural resources, and negatively impact planetary sustainability as a whole. Chemical spills and leaks can have catastrophic consequences.

For employers focused on achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2030), responsible chemical management is a must. Here we’ll discuss how a robust chemical management system can help your organization achieve your SDG 2030 goals.

First some background:

What is SDG 2030?

The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, known as the SDGs, form a blueprint for a sustainable planet by 2030. The World Health Organization cites sound management of chemicals and chemical hazard waste as central to achieving these goals.

We all have a role to play in achieving the goals of SDG2030. SDS RiskAssist has been a voluntary partner advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals since 2019.

SDS RiskAssist helps organizations improve their environmental performance by improving their selection, use and storage of workplace chemicals.

Our SDS management software helps organizations improve their environmental performance with easy-to-use, cost-effective tools to choose, use, store and dispose of hazardous workplace chemicals in a way that protects both human and environmental health and safety.

In particular, our work contributes to meeting these four SDGs:

SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

SDG Target 3.9
By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination

How SDS RiskAssist helps achieve SDG Target 3.9:

Exposure to commonly used chemical products in the workplace can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and many other serious ailments.

SDS RiskAssist helps employers meet WHMIS requirements to protect worker health and safety as well as reduce risks to the environment from hazardous chemicals.

The software identifies hazards for every product in your SDS collection – instantly – so you can:

• prioritize health, safety and sustainability initiatives
• make better decisions about chemical use at your workplace (e.g., choose safer products), and
• Update and communicate safe handling procedures. 

This includes flagging designated substances and chemicals with Occupational Exposure Limits (try our free OEL finder tool.) 

SDS RiskAssist makes it easy to keep safety data sheets up to date and automatically generates one-page SafetySnap digital SDS summaries for easy access by all employees 24/7 on any smartphone or other digital device. 

You can also add your own customized safe handling instructions to the SafetySnap SDS summaries.

This ensures everyone at your workplace can understand at a glance how to safely handle, store and dispose of chemicals - no more trying to digest and remember page after page of dense, hard-to-understand safety data sheet information.

Choosing safer chemicals

Our tools also make it easy to compare chemical products to eliminate unnecessary products and choose safer alternatives where possible. 

For example, Loyalist College has eliminated over 300 hazardous products college-wide using SDS RiskAssist.

The City of Quinte West, which moved from paper SDS binders to SDS RiskAssist software, eliminated over 30% of the chemicals used city-wide and now purchases chemicals with their hazards in mind and not simply price. See the case study.

In this way we help employers create a chemical safety culture for better awareness, decision making and tangible action to improve chemical management processes. 

“The college is committed to being an institutional model of sustainability. Minimizing our collective impact on the environment is central to our operations and threaded throughout the college’s academic programming.”

Former Loyalist College President and CEO Dr. Ann Marie Vaughan in the Belleville Intelligencer

SDG 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

SDG Target 6.3: By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally

How SDS RiskAssist helps achieve SDG Target 6.3

SDS RiskAssist works with many municipalities to help them understand the potential environmental hazards of chemicals used in their daily operations, including for water delivery and wastewater systems.

Our software tools help you to:

• identify drinking water hazards (as highlighted by regulatory jurisdiction) in the chemical products used in daily operations. 
• easily share knowledge and safe-handling and disposal practices for chemical products (and chemical waste) that may harm drinking water sources.
• set and track metrics for the responsible control and reduction of chemicals products that may be harmful to water resources, or for the responsible control and reduction of hazardous chemical waste.

SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

SGD Target 12.4 By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment

How SDS RiskAssist helps achieve SDG Target 12.4

SDS RiskAssist software helps clients manage hazardous chemicals and their waste products throughout their life cycle to reduce potential impacts on air, water and soil quality.

As noted above, the first step is to increase awareness of what hazards exist within an SDS collection. SDS RiskAssist links your hazardous chemical product inventory directly to the SDS. The software flags hazards at the click of a mouse and makes it easy to ensure that employees understand the risks and have the direction they need for safe handling and disposal of these products.

You can also set and track metrics and report on the responsible control and reduction of chemicals products and chemical waste that may be harmful to natural resources.

Plus you can continuously and privately compare chemical products used for the same function, by hazard, to make more sustainable purchasing decisions and eliminate the influence of “greenwashing” in marketing. 

SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

SDG Target 13.3 Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning

How SDS RiskAssist helps achieve SDG Target 13.3

Many chemical products release greenhouse gases. You can find this information in Section 3 of your WHMIS or GHS safety data sheets.

SDS RiskAssist software makes it easy to see a list of all the chemical products that you use that contain greenhouse gases and volatile organic compounds.

With this information in hand, you can set metrics for responsible control and reduction of chemicals products that contain greenhouse gases and VOCs.

For example, many workplaces use products containing hydroflurocarbon (HFC)-134a. Most are used for cleaning electronics but this ingredient can also be found in products like gum removers, rust removers and spray insulation.

The marketing for many of these products boast that they are CFC free. This is a good thing because chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) contribute to depleting the ozone layer. Eliminating them has helped us repair the ozone layer.

What the marketing doesn't say is that the products do contain hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are potent greenhouse gases.

Using just one 311 gram can of HCF-134a electronic cleaner has the same global warming potential as driving 1,100 km in your car!

Eliminating just one 311 gr can of these products can equal the carbon capture of planting 5 seedlings and growing them for 10 years!

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator shows you the climate impact of products used in your operations. Click on "Emissions data" and enter your own information.

Set metrics to track SDG 2030 progress

Again, with this information in hand, you can make decisions about which chemical products to use, and ensure that everyone in your organization knows how to handle and dispose of them properly. You can set metrics and track progress towards your SDG 2023 goals.

We believe that by working to achieve these goals we can do our part to help make positive changes that help protect and sustain our planet. 

The biggest obstacle to integrating environmental sustainability practices into everyday routines is a lack of time and tools to identify chemical hazards, and assess and mitigate their risks. You can't control what you don't see.

SDS RiskAssist overcomes this challenge with cost-effective tools that make chemical hazards easy to see and manage. Understanding the risks and consequences of chemical usage is the first step to adopting safer alternatives and sustainable practices. And every step matters. By prioritizing environmental protection and responsible chemical management, we can all do our part to safeguard and sustain our planet for future generations.