This week begins the first of three installments in a series on toxics in business, written by Richard A. Liroff, Ph.D., founder and director of the Investor Environmental Health Network and a regular GreenBiz.com contributor. According to Dr. Liroff, the principal drivers prompting companies to move toward greener chemicals -- science, regulation, and B2B environmentally preferable purchasing programs -- "are surging and will intensify."

The issue of toxics in products and processes is nothing new, though it often gets subsumed by concerns over energy, climate, and water resources. But in light of growing concerns about hazardous ingredients in everything from toothpaste to toys to televisions, pressure has grown on companies to act, as Liroff notes. Toxicity has become a shareholder issue, as investors view the potential liabilities and loss of reputation that comes from product recalls -- and the potential for activists to target companies seen as laggards or worse.

At the same time, cleaner ingredients are also on the rise. The field of green chemistry has moved from the margins to the marketplace, as companies making computers, apparel, cleaners, plastics and many other products have sought, and found, affordable and effective alternatives to conventional materials and ingredients. Policy makers have joined in, with the state of California leading the way to promote green chemistry.

Liroff notes that the aim of his three-part series is "to help you figure out how to reduce your company's toxic footprint by reducing and eliminating the 'worst of the worst' toxic chemicals and promoting use of 'best of the best' green ones. Which is another way of saying that green business is not about making bad products better -- it's about transforming them altogether toward the goal of making then benign, if not beneficial.

Last call: This week's webcast -- on the Sustainability Consortium founded by Walmart, with marching orders to create sustainability standards for thousands of products -- is filling up. In this unprecedented 90-minute event, featuring the Consortium's two co-chairs, we'll dive deep into the workings of the Consortium, exploring the role consumer products companies are playing in the process, and the potential impact of the Consortium on all manufacturers and their suppliers. To register, click here.

This tool allows companies to develop an initial assessment of where they stand on the use of toxic chemicals in their operations, and discover and implement safer alternatives.

This study finds that a robust climate bill could boost the U.S. economy by about $111 billion by 2020 and create as many as 1.9 million jobs.
 

 At this unprecedented 90-minute webinar, the Consortium’s co-chairs will provide an up-to-date accounting of its activities, describe where the group is headed, and answer your questions.