Product responsibility

Product sustainability and safety

The responsibility for the safety of the products Solvay provides to its customers is essential all along the life cycle of products, down to their end-of-life and recycling. This is reflected in the important efforts to identify and communicate accurately about the potential dangers of some of Solvay products and the ways to manage the associated risks, according to all existing regulations, and in line with our Responsible Care Policy. 

We support: Product stewardship

Our customers are fully informed about the properties of our products and their conditions of use. 
We play an active part in ensuring product safety throughout its entire lifecycle – from the acquisition of raw materials to disposal – to minimize potential adverse impacts on people and the environment. 

Going one step further, we also help them calculate the Lifecycle Assessments (LCAs) of a given application made with our products by providing eco-profiles. Extensive eco-profiles are available for the largest part of Solvay products (“cradle to gate” approach). 

We have also embarked on a high-level research platform coordinated by CIRAIG on LCA methodologies. Through this, partners of the project, including our customers, will establish long term contact collaboration and benefit from global expertise, enrichment of their own sustainability assessment tools , and have a better account of their social impact, among other things.  

We take an active part in controlling the risks of our products by ensuring their proper management through initiatives such as: 

• Worldwide phone assistance, through Carechem 24, in case of an accident or incident with our products during transport 
• Highly integrated industrial complexes to reduce transport, energy use and improve recycling
• Providing customers information about safe storage, distribution, use, disposal and recycling 
• Delivering specific and in-depth support such as training sessions and site visits for industrial products

We comply: regulatory compliance

We are committed to meeting regulatory compliance for product safety and fulfilling Classification Labeling Packaging (CLP) obligations in the application of the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) for all our substances and mixtures.

We meet and stay current with REACH/Reach-like obligations for all our products to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment.   

The Solvay Product Safety Management Process (PSMP) identifies risks relating to products marketed by Solvay. All Global Business Unit (GBUs) use this process, which involves prioritizing the required risk assessments in the product portfolio and carrying out risk assessments for the most sensitive product applications. A Product Safety Management System (PSMS) is applied in every GBU.

A detailed compliance review has to be performed for sensitive applications to ensure all relevant applicable regulations and Solvay’s standards (e.g. SMILE program) are applied to avoid potential liability impact. This compliance review covers all relevant activities and business processes along the product lifecycle. In particular any new activity- i.e. new development, new application of existing product, new product, new legislation, new country - must be covered. This also applies to any sensitive use discovered for an existing product.