Making Chemicals Safe and Sustainable by Design: Part 1

The chemical industry is a critical component of the modern global economy. As sustainability becomes an increasingly important consideration in the European Union's (EU) economic strategies, the European chemical industry is changing to embrace market demands and put Europe at the forefront of environmental protection, chemical innovation, and competitiveness.

Chemical industry leaders, policymakers, and researchers recently met in Brussels for the Safe and Sustainable by Design: Accelerating the Industrial Transition conference. The conference on March 19, 2026, was dedicated to the European Commission's (EC) revised recommendations for the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework. SSbD is a voluntary and strategic tool designed to support the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability to protect people and the environment by holistically integrating safety and sustainability into every stage of chemical development.

The conference discussions highlighted the way in which the revisions to SSbD move away from a linear, compliance-driven design to a circular, dynamic approach that integrates safety and sustainability during the entire innovation process. By taking this approach, the EC intends that SbD will foster collaboration, contribute to safer and more sustainable chemicals, and provide a strategic approach that anticipates regulatory demands instead of responding to them.

At the same time, attendees noted that SSbD is still evolving to meet new challenges, such as the complexity of the framework for small businesses, working with missing data, evolving approaches to socioeconomic assessments, and how to encourage the chemical industry to see the business value of a voluntary framework.

This Conference Chatter series organizes the discussions that took place over the course of the day into some of the important themes industry practitioners should consider as they begin to incorporate SSbD into their innovation and development strategies.

Development of SSbD

Beginning in 2022, the EC solicited feedback on the first SSbD framework from academia, registered training organizations (RTOs), EU partnerships, large companies, industrial associations, policymakers, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and individuals.

In her remarks, Irantzu Garmendia, project officer at the Joint Research Center, noted that the proposed framework is built on four SSbD principles:

• Assessments consider the entire SSbD system, including chemicals, processes, and products.
• Multidisciplinary engagement of life cycle actors and company experts ensure that both safety and sustainability are considered throughout the innovation process.
• Safety and sustainability are addressed holistically through the innovation process, including the inherent uncertainties and trade-offs in each iteration.
• SSbD implies transparency of assessment and traceability of fulfillment of the principles throughout innovation.

The SSbD framework has evolved considerably since it was introduced in 2022, moving from a static, linear chemical design process to a more dynamic, circular process in which safety, sustainability, and innovation are closely integrated at every stage.

Garmendia said that the SSbD framework will provide critical benefits, including reducing innovation risks and making products more economically viable for customers and investors.

“We like to say that it's a paradigm shift in innovation because it changes how we innovate,” said Garmendia.

Collaboration and Innovation: Benefits of SSbD

SSbD is a voluntary framework that can help companies not only comply with regulations but also anticipate them and enhance their competitiveness. “We're at a time when there are big challenges for the chemical industry in terms of geo-economics,” said Paul Speight, head of the Safe and Sustainable Chemicals Unit in the Directorate-General of the EC. “But there are still problems like the PFAS [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances] problem. Here we are hoping to see a great deal of innovation and substitution, and hopefully this is another super tool to help companies meet those challenges.”

Martijn Antonisse, from DSM-Firmenich Animal Nutrition and Health, emphasized the importance of connecting SSbD with existing processes to ensure that it does not become an extra bureaucratic step, as well as the importance of the multidisciplinary and holistic approach to SSbD.

“There's so much value if you bring the different disciplines together in an early phase, not when you have to go for the regulatory filing or doing safety tests, but at an early stage, and having conversations about where you see the risks,” said Antonisse.

In her remarks, Serenella Sala, from the EU Joint Research Center, addressed the application of SSbD to new molecules for which data is currently missing. She noted that in addition to being in the middle of a green transition, the industry is also in the midst of a digital transition that can stimulate increased capacity for complex assessments, including predictive data requirements for new substances.

Sala said that SSbD encourages different disciplines in the chemical industry to collaborate, including sustainability, product development, and regulatory compliance. This collaborative approach will change the industry, training the next generation of chemical developers to incorporate a holistic approach that includes safety and sustainability requirements.

Paul Ylioja, head of Chemicals Management Policy at Merck, followed up by saying that greater interdisciplinary integration can help the industry overcome some of the inefficiencies both within companies and between regulatory authorities with different priorities.

“EMA (European Medicines), ECHA (European Chemicals Agency), EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), they're all trying to understand these different things,” said Ylioja. “As we develop those skills in those groups, even if they are not using SSbD formally, they still need to understand it because that data is going to start coming through eventually.”

Promoting Adoption of SSbD

Ylioja also noted that SSbD's potential for improving competitiveness is only possible if it is not a burden for companies. He said that companies are already asking for information about chemical products and how to determine their safety and sustainability measurements.

“SSbD brings the power to make those decisions, as long as we remember that we need to keep updating that assessment as more information becomes available,” said Ylioja. “Otherwise, SMEs, with the new technologies, are never going to be able to fulfill those requirements. So, we all have to accept that this is evolving.”

It's sometimes an uphill battle to get companies to adopt SSbD, said Jonatan Kleimark, director of programs at ChemSec. He pointed out that many chemical companies, especially SMEs, find the SSbD framework complex and difficult to use.

“It's difficult for them to use it, and when it's voluntary, the incentive for them to use it is very small,” said Kleimark.

However, Antonisse noted that SSbD is an iterative approach, and that the market has been demanding a safe and sustainable approach for some time.

“If you do the investments in SSbD in an incremental and iterative way, then it's not a huge investment. Just make that first step,” he suggested, noting that an iterative approach that considers market requirements can help to create customer value.

Speight said incentives might encourage businesses, especially SMEs, to use SSbD and ensure it becomes a best practice, highlighting the accessibility of the framework and the availability of innovation hubs.

“SMEs are not coming to Brussels all the time, so you need to get into their ecosystem using existing SME networks, consultants, and academia,” said Speight. He also said SSbD is an opportunity for companies to differentiate themselves and to get ahead of regulatory and market changes.

“If you'd gotten ahead of something like PFAS phaseout, now is the time when you would be making money from that, so there are a number of opportunities out there as we move forward,” said Speight. “SSbD can help give you a structured way to get to them.”

Returning to the difficulty of getting companies to participate in a voluntary framework, Speight noted that frameworks like SSbD will only be effective if companies see the business value in adopting them.

“We have all this legislation that is broadly driving in the same direction of safer and more sustainable products and substances,” said Speight. “We will never tell businesses how they should meet those demands, but we do want to be more helpful, and this is part of being more helpful. If it's more helpful, people will take it up. If it isn't, they won't.”

Evolving to Meet New Challenges

SSbD is an evolving framework, which means challenges remain. Discussion turned to whether SSbD provides a suitable environment for companies to share their intellectual property to ensure there is enough data along the entire value chain during collaboration. Paul Ylioja said that while companies already share considerable information with customers, there is more work to be done to ensure transparency while protecting intellectual property.

“We're going to have to think very carefully how to get certain ranges in there so you can give some information that doesn't compromise your supply chain,” he said.

Another challenge is performing socioeconomic assessments with missing data and without a unified methodology. Sala said that the ability to determine the social footprint of chemical production is less developed than it is for environmental assessments. For missing data, Sala noted that developers could start with a qualitative approach to identify interactions between the innovation they want to pursue and issues that might have significant implications, and that the process is therefore a more important element than having complete data.