Syensqo’s commitments regarding the use of Hazardous Substances

As part of our Sustainability ambition, Syensqo always strives to go beyond compliance with all relevant regional and national chemical regulations such as REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical Substances) all over the world. 

Syensqo’s ambition is to work on a constant reduction of the presence of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC), whenever possible in all of its marketed products and throughout the value chain. We focus on SVHC from the EU REACH authorization list (annex XIV) and EU REACH candidate list, but we also go beyond this, following our own internal methodology aimed at closely monitoring the presence of SVHC in our marketed products and scheduling the development of safer alternatives.

Syensqo’s methodology

In 2015, Syensqo established its own reference list of SVHCs. This list is updated every year. It includes 2 key categories:

• The so-called ‘black list’ includes all substances already undergoing a regulatory phase-out process with a known deadline in at least one country or zone across the world, or a restriction for uses relevant to Solvay.
• The so-called ‘red list’  includes all substances that could enter into a process of special authorization or restriction in the medium term. 

Today, the “Black list” and “Red list” contain about 3.000 substances. In 2022, out of these 3.000 substances, 121 were present in Syensqo-marketed products at a concentration of more than 0,1 %. The sales of these products represented less than 10 % of our global turnover in 2022.

Syensqo performs Analysis of Safer Alternatives (ASA) for all ‘red’ and ‘black’ substances present in our marketed products above 0.1 % with the objective to replace these SVHCs by safer alternatives where feasible. All SVHC-application combinations are reviewed every three years through the ASA process. We report on the results of the ASA process in our annual reports.

^{(1) According to the black and red Syensqo-SVHC lists. SVHCs manufactured by, or forming part of, the composition of products sold by Syensqo worldwide.}
(2) Analysis of Safer Alternatives for potential substitution for an SVHC. A substance may be present in more than one product.

In 2022, Analysis of Safer Alternatives (ASA) were required and planned for a total of 142 combinations of products and applications. Of the 89 analyses of safer alternatives completed as of December 31, 2022, since the start of the program:

• 32 have led to an effective replacement, either through a substitution, through a reduction below the required threshold, or through a stop of production.
• 28  are ongoing, which means that an alternative has been identified and discussed with customers for implementation. For example: a) strontium chromate and barium chromate, for which non-chromate alternative products were identified in some applications; b) sulfolane: reduction below the required threshold for some products.
• 29 have resulted in no available alternatives, either because no substitute is available, because of regulatory obligations to use SVHC for some applications, or because an alternative has not been requested due to the application in the final product. For example, 4.4-Methylenedianiline is present in some products used in Aerospace. The qualification process in Aerospace does not allow for substitution.

Phase out of Fluorosurfactants

In June 2022, Syensqo announced its roadmap to phase out the use of fluorosurfactants from the PFAS family of chemicals. By 2026 we will manufacture nearly 100% of our fluoropolymers without the use of fluorosurfactants, at our Spinetta Marengo site in Italy. One small product line, critical for the semiconductor and energy industries and representing less than 1% of production volume, will require further research and development to completely phase out the use of fluorosurfactants. A tightly-controlled, closed-loop, and zero liquid discharge production process will be used for this production line.