On 9-10 February, the European Commission organized a stakeholder workshop in Brussels presenting the performed case studies on Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD). These case studies, which kicked-off in Autumn 2022, aimed to test the JRC SSbD framework for the first time in different industrial sectors, to assess its applicability and identify how to further improve it.

Since the release of the EC recommendation on SSbD in December 2022, which refers to the JRC SSbD framework in its annex, a two-year testing phase until the end of 2024 was kicked off where the framework will be tested and refined. This workshop was the third one of its kind organized by the EC on SSbD, and more than 600 participants joined on-site and online. The aim of the workshop was to present first results on implementing the JRC framework on SSbD in industrial cases. In total, four different case studies were presented – the case study on plasticizers used in food contact materials was led and presented by JRC, while three more case studies (two on flame retardant materials and one on enzymes) were led and presented by industry representatives.

Some lessons learned from the case studies are that SSbD is a very broad topic that currently requires a lot of efforts, resources and expert know-how to be implemented seriously; and that in all four steps of the framework (hazard assessment, safety assessment of production and processes, safety assessment of the final application, and environmental sustainability assessment), available and reliable data along the supply chain is the limiting factor with respect to the quality and certainty of the assessment outcomes. Nevertheless, the JRC framework builds a starting point that should help all actors in R&D&I to become safer and more sustainable from early innovation onward.

From DIAGONAL, Carlos Rumbo Lorenzo (UBU) and Susanne Resch (BNN) participated in the workshop in Brussels.