EU SCIP Regulation Drives Further Attention Towards Product-Level Transparency

EU SCIP Regulation Drives Further Attention Towards Product-Level Transparency

As of January 5^th 2021, all firms active within European Union (EU) markets supplying or importing articles that contain Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC), above a concentration of 0.1%, must submit information about those substances to a newly established SCIP database. The SCIP database is managed by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and is a direct outcome of the EU Waste Framework Directive. Throughout this summer, EU member states have been transposing the EU Waste Framework Directive requirements on SCIP database disclosure into national requirements. Estonia, for example, amended their Waste Act to include SCIP reporting effective from July 2020 onwards. Denmark, Spain, and Sweden have all recently concluded their SCIP regulation public consultation period whilst other EU nations such as Austria, Belgium, Finland, and Greece are all expected to introduce their regulations shortly.

The ECHA SCIP database will be available for firms to begin entering data from October 2020 onwards. Numerous vendors offer varied approaches to help firms meet this deadline. SAP Product Compliance enables existing SAP users to manually submit SVHC information using a CDX interface, or with services support from SAP Consulting or opesus EPN. Similarly, Compliance Map has partnered with Anthesis to jointly deliver a SCIP compliance solution. Other vendors such as Assent Compliance, GreenSoft Technology, iPoint-systems, Source Intelligence, Sphera, and Total Parts Plus provide dedicated software and managed services specifically for SCIP compliance from parts list validation to SCIP dossier preparation and submission. iPoint-systems, for example, is an official member of the ECHA IT User Group and offers a system-to-system bulk upload solution whilst Sphera’s BOMcheck solution also entails an Industry Steering Group including the likes of Philips, GE Healthcare, Osram, TE Connectivity, and Stryker.

Siemens Healthineers and Ikea are two example large multinational firms who both use Sphera’s BOMcheck solution as a collaborative platform to maintain materials compliance declarations as well as provide regulatory training and chemicals guidance to suppliers and sub-suppliers. In addition to maintaining compliance, Ikea’s product stewardship efforts are also driven by: i. grouping substances and minimizing or substituting use of regrettable chemicals, ii. streamlining chemical regulations and reporting requirements, iii. aligning with circular economy and climate policy initiatives. In fact, the World Economic Forum cites ‘Circular Economy and Material Value Chains’ as having the potential to yield up to $4.5 trillion in economic benefits by 2030.

The ECHA SCIP regulation is only the latest in a series of increasing regulatory and stakeholder-centric pressures on product supply chains. Upcoming regulations include bans on single-use plastic products including in the EU for member states transposition by July 3^rd 2021 as well as in countries such as India, Mexico, Kenya, and Tanzania. Chemical regulations continue to evolve with China introducing stricter restrictions on pollutant discharge permits as well as Taiwan, South Korea and Japan enforcing REACH-like and SVHC regulations. In the EU, the product categorisation system (EuPCS) has also been updated for poison centre notifications with effect from January 1^st 2021 onwards.

To learn more about how EHS technologies can help you better engage the value chain on product stewardship, read the Verdantix report titled ‘Strategic Focus: Engaging The Value Chain On Product Stewardship’.