Editor’s note: Earlier this year, ILFI chose Toxnot to be the platform for
I view chemicals management as an issue affecting us all. My wife and I are raising two daughters and think carefully about the products we use. The reality though is that even for us, some of the most informed consumers on the planet, the modern economy is filled with hard tradeoffs. As ‘outdoorsy’ Coloradoans, our closets are filled with high-performance fluorinated outdoor goods that we are struggling to find replacements for. And our kids keep us awash in soft plastic toys that seemingly come out of thin air despite our best efforts to keep the majority of them out of our house. Making individual choices is important, but it’s not enough to change the status quo of entrenched supply chains.
The tragedy of the commons is usually thought of in a resource-depletion context, but it’s just as applicable to the trace chemicals that are adding up in our air and water. I’ve been working in supply chain and product sustainability for my entire career and I’m generally looking for ways to speed and scale progress. Software systems have been a natural choice because of this. Bill, my cofounder at Toxnot, brings experience scaling Hotmail from 0-800 million users makes us a great team for understanding sustainability problems, designing solutions and scaling them rapidly.
When we looked at different concepts for starting a company in the space, we asked three questions:
-Does the world need this thing?
-Are people willing to pay for it?
-Do we have a really unique advantage in providing it?
Now, at the two-year anniversary of our launch, we have 1,000+ Toxnot users from around the globe. The need is there. First, adhering to regulations is the primary way most companies manage chemicals and their risk profiles. Risk assessments seek to understand the maximum amount of a toxin which can be used that is safe enough for the intended use. While this is a reasonable start, there’s a long history of things ending up in unintended uses, and conflicting information about what is ‘safe enough’. The only way to take into account all possible scenarios is to work to reduce the total hazard of the chemicals used. By supporting both risk assessments and total hazard reduction, Toxnot helps companies continue to operate and make incremental improvements while also keeping the design ideals of truly green chemistry front and center for designers.
The most common challenge we see is with supplier engagement and data collection. Trust and transparency go hand in hand. We have built out Toxnot to incorporate a unique solution- customizable, interactive supplier surveys. Manufacturers can set them up to enable their suppliers to directly enter their data into Toxnot, with the ability to protect proprietary chemicals while still reporting on their hazard profiles. Creating this system of trust helps to promote transparency.
The Toxnot platform is providing the infrastructure to scale up existing transparency efforts. Consumer want to know what’s in their products; manufacturers want to reduce their risk. We’ve developed a platform to help manufacturers provide (and improve on) product information very efficiently. The Toxnot platform helps manufacturers collect information from their suppliers, use it in their design process and ultimately share parts of it with their customers.
We’re lucky to have launched Toxnot at a time when we anticipate looser federal regulations on chemicals. Why? An unprecedented number of state regulations, consumer advocacy groups and corporations are stepping up to demand chemical transparency. It’s an incredible time when product manufacturers can engage their consumers directly instead of just following top-down regulations. A shift in power is happening with incredible speed. The building industry continues to make steady progress. In other industries, eight major US retailers have created their own chemical priorities lists in response to consumer concerns.
The conversations we have with Toxnot users and prospective clients, from a variety of industries, makes me hopeful about a future less reliant on toxic chemicals. Companies are working to future-proof their products for an increasingly educated and proactive consumer group- and we’re excited to provide solutions to help power an evolution in product design and transparency.
