HARMLESS @ SSbD24 conference
The transition toward safer and more sustainable chemicals and materials is a cornerstone of the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. This ambitious vision took a significant step forward in 2022 with the introduction of the Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) framework, designed to guide the creation of new materials and the re-design of existing ones. Achieving this goal requires integrating safety and sustainability, fostering collaboration among scientists, regulators, policymakers, and industry experts.
From 10 to 15 November 2024, the SSbD24 conference, organised by empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology), brought together around 130 experts from academia, research organizations, regulators, policy makers, and industry. The event offered an in-depth exploration of the latest SSbD approaches, methods and their real-world implementation. The conference highlighted the progress in SSbD methodologies, offering a comprehensive overview of current developments. Lively discussions tackled critical topics, such as the shift from relative to absolute sustainability metrics and the systemic changes needed in regulations and financial systems to meet the sustainability goals. The discussions extended during the numerous networking opportunities at the breaks, lunches, and dinners.
The HARMLESS project participated at the conference, with BASF and TNO presenting our SSbD Approach and Decision Support System (DSS) for Advanced Nanomaterials. Their contributions emphasized our tools for early innovation stages, such as ADMA, WASP, and ASDI, designed to support safer and more sustainable materials development.
Highlights of the HARMLESS presentations:
Wendel Wohlleben (BASF) gave an oral presentation in the session “SSbD Case Studies 3” on Friday 15.12. focused on HARMLESS Case Studies, sharing insights from four case studies involving advanced materials replacing conventional ones, in different industry sectors. These case studies illustrated how structured guidance for the design and assessment of advanced materials, supported by categorizations and comparative screening approaches, e.g. known sustainability issues of the sector of intended use or known safety issues of specific material classes, and tiered tools, aligned with the Stage Gate innovation process, aid in evaluating the (positive or negative) impacts on different sustainable development goal (SDG) targets. The used tools are available at https://diamonds.tno.nl/projects/harmlesspublic. Wendel also highlighted how the project strongly differentiated the depth of consideration and testing between the ideation and business case phase and laboratory phase, and explained how the project performed benchmarking of performance to the conventional material, and comparative assessment by NAMs for the prioritized safety concerns (or hazard and exposure). The rationale to the first of three tools (i.e., AMEA) is already published (DOI: 10.1039/d3en00831b).
On Thursday 14.12., Susan Dekkers (TNO) presented the HARMLESS SSbD Approach and Decision Support System for Advanced Nanomaterials, in the “SSbD Tools & methods 1” session. In her presentation she explained the SSbD approach and DSS developed in the HARMLESS project, how the approach is aligned with the EU SSbD framework, how it considers data availability and resources along the innovation process, using a flexible stage-gate model of 3 innovation stages: ideation & business case phase, laboratory scale and pilot scale. She also introduced the tools and explained on how and when to use them: In the ideation and business case phase, designers are advised to use the AMEA and WASP tool. The Advanced Material Earliest Assessment (AMEA) tool consists of only 3 questions and is used for early categorization and subsequently advice on design principles and applicability of the SSbD approach. If the approach is applicable, the designer is advised to apply the second tool, named Warning flags, design Advice, Screening Priorities (WASP). WASP is based on the AMEA advice and several other existing tools as a simplified approach that requires less information. This approach consists of 12 questions to identify early warning flags on safety and sustainability and to provide design and assessment advice. To help industrial innovators to make an informed decision for the most optimal SSbD version in the lab phase, another approach, named Alternative SSbD Design Inspector (ASDI) was developed. Based on the early warning flags from WASP, ASDI provides guidance on which descriptors to measure and insight into the differences between the SSbD versions within the various dimensions (safety, sustainability and performance). Susan’s presentation is available under DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14279205.
The conference also served as a platform to discover new scientific publications, enhancing the knowledge base for the HARMLESS project, and to establish new connections and opened doors to new collaboration opportunities, further driving the collective effort toward safer and more sustainable innovation.
The SSbD24 conference showcased the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration and practical tools in advancing the EU’s sustainability goals. It reinforced the critical role of shared knowledge and partnerships in shaping the future of chemical and material innovation.
