Promotion of responsible replacements

Previously Aim 3 research focused on governments and inter-governmental organisations such as the European Union and the OECD. More recently, the team has been turning their attention to private initiatives of various kinds that seek to exert positive and negative pressure on industry to adopt and implement ambitious environmental and human health objectives. The positive pressure comes in various forms, including information, support for the development of environmental and sustainability strategies, tools that assist firms in identifying and analysing risks generated by their operations. Negative pressure can include lists of substances of concern and of the names of firms, whose products contain them; report cards or other ratings; and information destined for civil society intended to inform and educate them about environmental and health risks, risks to which individual firms may be contributing.

Although climate change does not form part of the larger team’s research project, we have become interested in exploring initiatives of civil society organisations, often in collaboration with industry, to promote the adoption of net-zero emissions plans by firms. The reason for focusing on climate change is that these net-zero initiatives are often very well resourced and supported, involve high-profile actors such as the UN and major multinational corporations, and have received a good deal of scholarly attention. The approaches taken in the area of climate change may hold valuable lessons for firms, civil society organisations, and regulators interested in reducing chemical risk.

Publications

You will find a complete list of articles published and presentations made by the Aim 3 team in the "Knowledge Transfer" section of this website.