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Frequently Asked Questions

Below find the answers to the most commonly asked questions.  If you have a question to add, please ask it.

The CFP Survey is designed to be completed by manufacturers, brands, and retailers. While the Survey is applicable to any manufacturer or brand or retailer, it was developed using information on the chemicals management practices of the following sectors: automotive, building products, consumer packaged goods, medical devices, electronics, and apparel/footwear/outdoor. Survey results and scores can be used by investors and purchasers to help identify chemical management leaders in specific product categories of interest.
 
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The CFP Survey evaluates overall corporate chemical management performance by considering four elements: 1) management strategy, 2) chemical inventory, 3) footprint measurement, and 4) public disclosure and verification.
 
For the 2021 reporting period, the CFP asks companies to measure CoHCs contained in the products they sell. The 2021 Survey also contains beta questions regarding chemicals of high concern in packaging. 
 
In future years the scope of chemical footprint measurement will expand to include manufacturing operations, supply chain, and facilities.
Increasingly, purchasers and investors want to know how well companies manage chemicals in products and supply chains.  Are companies using chemicals of high concern to human health or the environment in products or manufacturing?  Are they using safer alternatives?  What actions are companies taking to systematically reduce chemicals of greatest concern and to use safer alternatives?  How can companies that systematically use safer alternatives be identified and rewarded?
 
The lack of an independent, third-party metric for publicly benchmarking corporate progress in reducing chemicals of high concern makes it difficult for investors and purchasers to identify and reward good performance and makes it difficult for companies to demonstrate superior performance.  Furthermore, the lack of a common metric means that companies seeking to improve their performance lack a clear way to measure performance and identify their most significant improvement opportunities.
 
The CFP aims to meet this need.  For investors, it supplies a key piece of information that has been missing in evaluating corporate sustainability.  For retailers, it provides a credible, third-party approach for driving chemicals management into the value chain.  For brands, it provides a means for assessing chemicals management and benchmarking progress as well as an opportunity to be recognized as a leader.  For purchasers, it will help to identify chemical management leaders in specific product categories of interest.  For the public, it will mean that chemicals of high concern are reduced in consumer products, leading to lower exposures and improved health outcomes.

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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.
Signatories are investors, large-scale purchasers, retailers or NGOs that agree to:
  • Encourage companies in their sphere of influence to participate in the Chemical Footprint Project.
  • Be listed on the Chemical Footprint Project website.
  • Provide feedback on how to improve implementation of the Chemical Footprint Project.
A Responder is a brand, manufacturer, or retailer that completes the Chemical Footprint Project Survey.
Brands, manufacturers, and retailers can take the Survey by logging into the secure CFP website by first applying to participate.
 
The Survey allocates a total of 100 points across 19 questions. Question-specific scores are added to give a company a total score. The response data from participants is anonymized, collated, and analyzed in the CFP Annual Report.
 
Responders can choose whether to publicly share 1.) their participation in the CFP, 2.) their Survey responses (not including documentation), and 3.) their scores. Although third-party verification is not a required, additional points are awarded if responses are independently validated.
 
Participants can share their results with their customers and investors who wish to source products from companies that are leaders in using safer chemicals.
 
Any brand, manufacturer, or retailer can use the Survey to benchmark its chemicals management program, understand its progress over time and its position relative to other firms. It is designed as a tool to measure continuous improvement in chemicals management.

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The CFP Survey provides a common framework for understanding corporate chemicals management including identification of corporate leaders and potential liability.
 
Use of the chemical footprint metric provides clear indication of progress towards safer chemicals.
There is no cost for being a Signatory in the Chemical Footprint Project.
Use of toxic chemicals in products and manufacturing processes poses risk with regard to a company's reputation, ability to comply with fast-changing regulations, and resulting need to quickly redesign products.
 
The CFP Survey provides a comprehensive framework to build robust corporate chemicals management systems. Participation in the CFP Survey enables companies to map gaps in their existing systems. 
 
Chemical footprint calculation allows companies to measure progress in their reduction of toxic chemicals.
There is no cost to be a Responder to the Chemical Footprint Project.
 
The CFP Survey builds from other related frameworks, including the BizNGO Guide to Safer Chemicals and the Higg Index Chemicals Management Module. It differs from these frameworks as it is the first initiative to publicly benchmark corporate progress in chemicals management and safer chemicals use.
 
BizNGO Guide to Safer Chemicals: The BizNGO Guide is a broad framework for chemicals management created through a unique collaboration of businesses and non-governmental organizations that share a vision of shifting the economy toward safer chemicals. It is designed to be used as a self-assessment tool and does not include a questionnaire to evaluate, score, and compare companies.
 
Higg Index: The Higg Index was developed by a collaboration of brands, retailers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. It is currently being used as an internal self-assessment tool to measure the sustainability impacts of apparel and footwear products across the value chain at the brand, product, and facility levels, with a verification protocol under development to ultimately allow its use in consumer-facing communication. The Chemicals Management Module of the Higg Index was developed to specifically address chemicals use and impacts in the supply chain. 

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Companies completing the Survey receive scores from 0 to 100 based on responses and supporting documentation. A company can decide whether to make its participation public, as well as its responses to the Survey questions and its score. Participation, responses, and scores of companies that agreed to be public are available here.
 
Responses of all participating companies are evaluated and reported anonymously in an Annual Report.
 
Although third party verification is not a requirement for participation, companies receive additional points if responses are independently validated.
The CFP defines a Chemical of High Concern (CoHC) as a chemical that meets any of the following criteria: 1) carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction (CMR); 2) persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substance (PBT); 3) 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 (for example, an endocrine disruptor or neurotoxicant); or 4) a chemical whose breakdown products result in a CoHC that meets any of the above criteria.
 
Using this definition, the Chemical Footprint Project compiled its CoHC List from 14 lists of hazardous chemicals developed by governments and other authoritative bodies. The CFP CoHC List includes any chemical or chemical group that meets any combination of the CFP criteria for a CoHC on any of the 14 lists. Substances on these lists that could not plausibly be an intentionally added ingredient of a product were excluded from the CFP CoHC List (e.g., viruses, alcoholic beverages). The source lists and links to their websites can be found in Appendix D of the Guidance Document.
 
While each source list is dynamic, to simplify reporting the CFP CoHC List is static and is periodically updated. 
 
The CFP CoHC list aligns with the approach used by GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals to identify CoHCs, known as “List Translator-1” chemicals (LT-1’s).
Measuring a chemical footprint is done by count or by mass (in kilograms).  
 
For the CFP 2021 Survey, responders have the option to report on their products, packaging, or both. Ideally, responders will report their chemical footprints by mass, using the CFP CoHC Reference List, which is approximately  2,220 chemicals and chemical groups. Alternately, responders may report their chemical footprint by count and/or use a subset of the CFP CoHC List, the European Union’s Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern for Authorization (EU Candidate SVHC List).  
 
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.   

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