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Guidance from the Green Science Policy Institute on specifying healthier insulation, including research on flame retardants.

A company may choose to substitute a chemical to improve the safety or environmental footprint of a product or material.  In other cases, the primary reason may be to improve functionality, but it is important to ensure that substitute chemicals do not carry unintended health or pollution risks.  This guide form the European Chemicals Agency provides an overview of how to identify harmful substances and ensure that substitution practices are effective in improving safety and reducing chemical impacts.

OECD have compiled a range of frameworks, guides and toolkits are available to support sound chemical substitution processes.

A guide from ChemSec aiming to simplify the process of chemical substitution

This guide is produced by the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.The substitution guide is aimed for all businesses who want to start working on systematic chemical work. It might be best suited for small and medium-sized companies that are just starting their work. The guide does not address any specific industry, but the examples and templates are developed for producing companies and companies that work with trade in goods.

The substitution guide provides practical advice and recommends tools and resources that are relevant to the goal of each step. Some resources can be used in several steps, so they are mentioned several times so that you know how the resources are intended to be used.

The Portal provides information to supporting efforts in substituting hazardous substances and assisting in finding safer alternatives. 

The mission of the Chemical Footprint Project is to transform global chemical use by measuring and disclosing data on business progress to safer chemicals. It provides a tool for benchmarking companies as they select safer alternatives and reduce their use of chemicals of high concern. CFP provides guidance on chemical footprinting, which is the process of benchmarking progress away from hazardous chemicals and towards safer alternatives. 

UNEP's new Eco-innovation Building Materials Supplement was created to respond to the building material sector's need for more guidance in building resilient, competitive, and sustainable business models for SMEs. Designed together with Bioregional, pilot implementation support of the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC) Sri Lanka and to be read alongside UNEP's Eco-innovation Manual, the supplement provides specific examples, learning case studies, and advice on applying the eco-innovation methodology within the building materials value chain.

Links to Chemical Inventories and Chemical Notifications in countries where these are in place.

Healthy Building Network Guidance on selecting a safer sealant product.