METRICS
METRICS ARE ESSENTIAL TO ACHIEVING OUR MISSION
We are building the infrastructure necessary to drive meaningful progress in safer chemistry.
While the global business community has made significant strides in reducing greenhouse gas emissions—driven by clear, measurable targets for carbon neutrality—chemical hazard reduction has lagged behind. This gap ultimately stems from the old adage: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” By providing the framework to measure these hazards, we are enabling the industry to bridge this gap.
OUR GOAL
Embed safer chemistry metrics and tools in four
consumer-facing supply chains in the next five years.
ESTABLISHING A BASELINE:
The Fund’s first round of impact grants sought to establish a baseline metric and roadmap in at least four consumer facing supply chains to prioritize action and investment in the sector.
These baseline metrics reflect the work of individual retailers, brands, formulators, and chemical suppliers who conduct individual analysis that are then anonymized and aggregated to set goals that contribute to broader industry efforts.
Key Metrics
Tracking progress on these key metrics year-over-year provide tangible progress toward safer chemistry
1: % Disclosed: Establishes the foundation for measurement. This quantifies the percentage of ingredients with sufficient chemical identity information to enable identification and subsequent hazard characterization.Acknowledges the known unknowns and tracks the improvement of disclosure/transparency over time
2: % Characterized: The baseline of visibility. This quantifies the percentage of
ingredients in a portfolio that have sufficient data to be assigned a hazard classification.
3: % Safer Chemistry (Hazard Bands A, B, and C): An objective and comparable measure
of progress. Quantifying the proportion of the portfolio consisting of verified safer
chemistry.
4: % Chemicals of Concern (Hazard Bands D and F): Identifying priorities for action. This
quantifies the presence of substances with potential hazards that may hold current and
future regulatory and/or reputational risk.
5: % Uncharacterized (Hazard Band ?): Quantifying the information gap. This metric ensures that a lack of data never implies safety. It serves as a targeted investment map, identifying priorities for investment in chemical hazard assessments (CHAs) to resolve hidden risks and uncover opportunities for value creation.
Safer Chemistry Impact Metrics Framework (SCI Metrics Framework)
In 2024, SCI Fund published firsts-of-its-kind safer chemistry metrics and then rigorously tested them in multiple supply chains culminating in the 2026 release of the Safer Chemistry Impact Metrics Framework.
The SCI Metrics Framework marks a pivotal milestone in the global transition to verified safer chemistry by establishing a common measurement architecture for translating chemical inventory and hazard information into standardized metrics that enable organizations to understand, benchmark, track progress toward safer chemistry over time, and compare results across companies and industry sectors.
Release: August 2026
MORE ON METRICS
A full discussion of these metrics and the process by which they were established is available in our first publication Accelerating the Transition to Safer Chemistry: Establishing a Collective Vision & Impact Metrics. We invite you to join us and contribute to accelerating science-based, data-driven efforts that meet the moment and set a course for using chemicals and chemistry in harmony with planetary boundaries and healthy life on earth.