Effective industry associations or consortia are critical to your business success, particularly where you have co-producers of the same products or share common interests. They ensure your voice is heard and understood at all levels in the legislative process. At best, they enable you to minimize your costs through sharing necessary activities and allow you to develop and maintain industry standards and reputation.
Product Stewardship is all about defining the main potential risks to your product business and taking concrete steps to reduce them. It has been defined as: “The demonstrable process by which we identify and manage our EHS business conduct, arising in - development, manufacture, distribution, marketing, use and ultimate disposal of our products - in a safe, healthy, environmentally sound and sustainable way which ensures conformity with local requirements and Company policy”.
The new European regulation, REACh (Registration, Evaluation & Authorisation of Chemicals) came into force from June 1st, 2007. It is just that - far-reaching - and will have significant effects on all chemicals made or imported into Europe, as well as on articles, if any chemicals migrate from such articles. It replaces most of the main laws in Europe relating to both new and existing chemicals and also restrictions to market and uses.
The regulatory climate is only increasing in complexity around the world. This makes it harder for small to medium and even the large companies to keep up with the regulations, to see what they mean to the business and to implement compliance processes. It is often necessary for companies to communicate their data and positions to a wide range of stakeholders.