The Future of Clean Chemistry: ZDHC In-Person Focus Area Meetings

The Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) Program kicked off a series of in-person meetings in Amsterdam from September 17-19, shining a spotlight on Input and Output Focus Areas (FA). The ADEC Innovations team had a fantastic time meeting with ZDHC and our CleanChain™ brands—keep scrolling for a few of our highlights.

Gearing up for MRSL v2.0

A key topic discussed during the meetings was the highly anticipated release of the ZDHC MRSL v2.0, slated for early 2020. This included a discussion of ZDHC Gateway preparations, as well as industry preparations over the coming months. During the meetings, breakout groups focused on key aspects of this roll out and consideration. Stayed tuned to the ZDHC Foundation newsletters for more updates.

The meetings also reviewed the scope and content for v2.0 of the ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines.

ZDHC Gateway Day

The meetings highlighted the first official ZDHC Gateway Day on September 19, recognizing the comprehensive online platform used by ZDHC members to evaluate the ZDHC MRSL conformance of chemical formulations used in production. ZDHC Gateway Product Manager Dinali Mallikage and ZDHC Customer Success Manager Neliana Fuenmayor represented ADEC Innovations at the event, presenting on InCheck, ZDHC public disclosure portal and other future Gateway developments.

Chemical Industry Engagement Workshop

In June of this year, members of the Global Chemical Industry Round Table (GCIRT) agreed to join the ZDHC Foundation as Contributors, marking a critical milestone towards a mutual goal of creating more transparent supply chains and phasing out the use of hazardous chemicals within the textile and apparel industry.

ZDHC’s alignment with these nine major textile and leather industry chemical suppliers signals a focus on a “harmonized industry approach” and brings thousands of chemical products into the Chemical Module of the ZDHC Gateway.

This workshop was created to bring ZDHC’s chemical industry engagement initiative into the spotlight.

bluesign FINDER synchronization with ZDHC Gateway

bluesign FINDER, a web-based chemical products positive list, helps users identify chemicals and chemical suppliers who follow "a responsible care approach with excellent knowledge of product stewardship and demonstrating outstanding environmental and occupational health and safety performance," promoting more sustainable supply chains and safer chemical use in manufacturing.

During the meetings, in addition to the onboarding of GCIRT chemical suppliers, stakeholders were updated on the progress of synchronization between Bluesign’s FINDER and ZDHC Gateway. This data synchronization will grow the ZDHC Gateway conformant product database by nearly 50%, a momentous milestone for the apparel industry.

Other updates

August 2019 saw the release of the ZDHC Gateway Electronic Data Reporting System Guidelines, created to provide a detailed framework on how to report wastewater test results in the ZDHC Gateway Wastewater Module. The document details the system framework, specifications for data upload, and requirements for data entry—giving participating laboratories the opportunity to review the framework before a planned implementation in 2020.

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