Sustainability

Solvay innovates by finding new manufacturing methods to reduce the carbon footprint of our product. Our expertise draws from applying Life Cycle Assessments to measure and ensure our solutions are based on science, sustainable and designed to reduce our environmental impact across all industries.

We examine the entire lifespan of a product to understand how each of our products can reduce carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. As an alternative to synthetic surfactants, Rhodasurf^® 6 NAT MB is produced without petrochemicals and uses renewable carbon throughout ingredient development. The Life Cycle Analysis for this bio-based surfactant for home care shows how we can save up to 30% in non-renewable carbon resources and up to 20% in carbon dioxide emissions.

Learn more about how we lower carbon footprint emissions at Solvay.

^{*REACH compliant}

Bio-based solutions are products once made from fossil fuels, but now made from biological products, such as soy oil, coconut oil or even sustainable palm oil. 

The reasons for the market shift toward bio-based ingredients are two-fold — to reduce their global carbon footprint and to use more eco-friendly products, such as bio based cleaning products that are renewable, recyclable and less harmful to human health. Also, consumers themselves are demanding new sustainable solutions as they are becoming more environmentally conscious.
 
The bio-based home care market is set to grow and our bio-based portfolio is here to help your formulators develop the next generation of green formulations.

^{*REACH compliant}

Why is palm oil still important?

Palm oil is an incredibly efficient crop, producing more oil per land area than any other equivalent vegetable oil crop. Globally, palm oil supplies 35% of the world’s vegetable oil demand on just 10% of the land. Although oil palm is much more efficient than other vegetable crops there is concern that the growing demand for palm oil could lead to serious environmental and social consequences such as deforestation, loss of natural habitats, wildfires and land conflicts.

Even though volumes used by Solvay remain low compared to the total market of palm oil, we are committed to respect the RSPO principles and ensure our palm oil supplies are done in a sustainable way.

*Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Mass Balance (MB) supply chain model

What is RSPO Mass Balanced (MB)?

Palm oil can be produced in a responsible manner that respects the environment and communities. The RSPO label ensures that a product is made with certified sustainable palm oil. This label gives confidence that the palm oil was produced in a socially and environmentally responsible way. 

What are Solvay’s commitments? 

• Member of  Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) since 2012
• A sustainable sourcing policy for palm and palm kernel oil derivatives
• A stringent selection of our suppliers based on sustainability criteria
• A time-bound plan to ensure the full traceability of our raw materials

^{*REACH compliant}

Readily biodegradable, seen as the ultimate biodegradability measure, is defined as the ability of a product to biodegrade quickly and completely in nature. The measure of success is if at least 60% of the ingredient biodegrades within 28 days (by OECD 301 B testing). At Solvay, we are working to develop suitable home care options that are readily biodegradable to help you develop eco-conscious products that also relieve the pressure on our ecosystem. 
 

Solvay’s sustainable portfolio can help you develop waterless and energy-saving solutions. With ingredients compatible in solid-format formulations for conserving water, or high-performance technology for boosting efficiency during wash and dry cycles or for use in lower temperatures, thus saving energy, we can help preserve our most precious resources by doing more with less. 

Today, consumers want to be better informed regarding their purchasing decisions. Companies must be more transparent to give their consumers an easier understanding about a product’s impact on human health and the planet. Building that trust and educating customers requires companies to have their end-products certified by external, independent entities. For an entire formulation to receive such green credentials, raw ingredients must pass some tests as well. The most common tests in the home care industry for validating whether an ingredient is eco-friendly are EU Ecolabel and Ecocert. 

The EU Ecolabel takes the whole life cycle of a product into account — from the extraction of raw materials, to production, to packaging and transport, through to consumer use, disposal and recycling.

Ecocert is an organic-certification organization that conducts inspections in more than 80 countries, making it one of the largest such organizations in the world.

New York recently passed a law requiring new limits on 1,4-dioxane residuals in finished household cleaning products sold within the state. Solvay has a fundamental understanding of 1,4-dioxane generation and reduction in raw materials. Our priority is to continue providing customers in North America with products that are safe, effective and meet mandated regulations by the government. Below is a list of ingredients that are ideal for use in the home care industry and meet government requirements.

^{*REACH compliant}

Today’s consumers have neither the time nor the desire to spend hours scrubbing their home from top to bottom. Home care formulators must respond to this evolving consumer behavior by developing cleaning solutions that eliminate everyday stains and prevent tough soils from forming to make every future clean easier.

As desirable as these effortless cleaning formulations may be, it is challenging to develop solutions that are versatile enough to provide easy cleaning in a range of home environments, including kitchen countertops, bathroom sinks and toilets, and fabrics.

Solvay develops the most advanced easy cleaning polymers and detergents so formulators can develop high-performing home care solutions that meet consumer expectations in terms of both efficiency and efficacy.  

Better-protecting ingredients are highly innovative concepts designed to offer longer-lasting protection to reduce the number of times cleaning is required, saving consumers both time and energy while preserving the planet’s resources. Solvay offers ultra-efficient cleaning solutions to put your customer’s mind at peace. 
 

_{*REACH compliant}