Summary Factsheet of the Discussion Paper with Technical Recommendations
A factsheet summarieses the main messages of the Discussion paper with Technical Recommendations, launched 20 January 2021
Please download the pdf factsheet here and consider sharing it with your networks.
Discussion Paper with Technical Recommendations released
The Discussion paper with Technical Recommendations, launched 20 January 2021, presents results from the Proactive Alliance’s work over the past three years. The Proactive Alliance is confident that this document marks an important milestone on the path towards a cross-sectoral harmonisation on how to report on Substances in Articles along the supply chains at a global level. From this perspective, the discussion paper proposes criteria and gives technical information as a benchmark for standard development by different sectors and Standard Development Organisations.
The discussion paper with recommendations aims to contribute to the following medium- and long-term objectives:
- Creating technical and governance frameworks for more efficient implementation of regulations on Substances in Articles (“Article” as defined by the EU REACH Regulation);
- Making data collection a more automated process with lower costs and higher data quality;
- Creating value for companies that perform well in this matter
- On the long term ambition to gain benefits in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, e.g. from the Full Material Declaration (FMD) within the professional supply chain.
An earlier draft version of this document was shared for internal review with the participants in the Proactive Alliance between June and September 2020. A consolidated draft was subject to public consultation in November and December 2020 by means of this website and a webinar thankfully hosted by Chemical Watch at the 8th of December 2020. The 16th Technical Coordination Meeting of the Proactive Alliance in December 2020 considered the collected feedback received from organisations such as ACC, ICCA, JAMP, JCIA and JEMA (summarized in appendix 5.8 of the discussion paper).
Download the document here.
15th Coordination Meeting (Oct. 2020): Proactive Alliance Recommendations towards a global material reporting standard
The Proactive Alliance members are jointly striving to reach a cross-sectoral harmonisation of how to report on Substances in Articles along the supply chain at a global level. After two years of working together, the Proactive Alliance formulated a set of recommendations for achieving this goal in a Policy Document. This will eventually result in the following benefits for the stakeholders along the supply chains:
Meeting existing legal requirements for supply chain communication and consumer information, e.g. under
- general product safety and liability,
- the EU REACH Regulation and its Article 33 (1)/(2) as well as Article 7 (2), and
- data transfer to the SCIP database under Article 9 (1)(i);
Meeting contractual obligations towards the customer;
Being prepared to be compliant with legal requirements and contractual obligations including in the future; e.g.
- EU REACH Regulation Article 59 (10)
- legal requirements resulting from EU Green Deal such as developments enabling a Circular economy. In this respect, SiA communication along the supply chain to end of life actors gains importance and is essential to enable efficient material recycling.
Enhanced manageability in terms of the aforementioned tasks and challenges;
Reducing the burden on supply chain stakeholders through cross-sector cooperation based on a common understanding, and finally
Saving costs through effective communication systems
As stated in its mission statement, the main outcome of the Proactive Alliance is this policy document with recommendations for the development of a global cross-sector standard for the communication of Substances in Articles (“Article” as defined by the EU REACH regulation). The intention is not to create a new standard but to build on existing standards and, where required, to enhance existing ones where these, e.g. show gaps, with the aim of producing a harmonised global cross-sector approach.
Progress Report: 12th Technical Coordination Meeting, February 2020
Proactive Alliance will speak at the Chemical Watch Global Business Summit in March 2020 in Amsterdam. PA will provide a pre-publication overview of the draft policy recommendation that will enter an internal review phase starting in April and afterwards will be shared with the public for external review.
Progress Report: 3rd Physical Meeting in Brussels, November 2019
Tenth meeting and at the same time third physical meeting of Proactive Alliance took place on 5th November 2019 in Brussels.
- PA took note of the progress reached in its four working groups, reflected on the outcomes and agreed on future steps.
- The PA confirmed that beside the two major aspects relevant for SiA reporting standards, and already covered by WGs (Substance Reporting Lists and material reporting rationales/formats), there is a third aspect (“pillar”) to be addressed adequately: the framework conditions that are relevant with regard to data quality – including accuracy of SiA-data in terms of change of the material composition or new reporting requirements – and data security, verification (auditing) etc. The group aims at defining core requirements in this respect on order to gain the entire set of benefits linked to the cross-sectoral material reporting approach.
- The group refined the timelines (with a view at the CW GBS in Amsterdam, March 2020, and the SAICM conference in Bonn in autumn 2020):
- Recommendations to harmonize the criteria for creating a cross-sectoral Substance Reporting List (SRL) on a global level will be approved in December; - a written recommendation document will be available in for PA-members in January
- ToR refined; to be published on the internet in November 2019
The Proactive Alliance started to reflect its role in creating industry awareness of the implications standardization.
Progress Report: 8th Technical Coordination Meeting, September 2019
- First drafts for recommendations to harmonize the criteria for creating a Substance Reporting List (SRL) are ready (Working Group 1)
- Draft policy document for internal discussion is planned to be ready by November 2019
- Proactive Alliance Membership: Onboarding documents for new and interested members are ready and soon to be published on website (partly) (Working Group 3)
- The Proactive Alliance starts to reach out to organizations outside of Europe (Working Group 4)
- Proactive Alliance representatives will speak at CW GBS in Amsterdam in March 2020
Initial meeting in May 2018
After the initial meeting at the Chemical Watch Global Business Summit in April 2018 in Amsterdam, sofia organised a series of technical meetings.
- Minutes of the first meeting in May 2018
The Proactive Alliance developed its Mission Statement (charter) outlining the general motivation behind the group and its objectives as well as the commonly agreed Terms of Reference (ToR).
One year after its inception, the group was invited to speak at the Chemical Watch Global Business Summit, 26-27 March 2019 in Brussels. Prof. Dr. Martin Führ (sofia) and Stéphane Content (Cefic) presented the Proactive Alliance and its ambitions as well as highly topical insights into the working progress.
The Proactive Alliance agreed to prepare regular progress reports.