Safe and Sustainable by Design chemicals and materials - Methodological Guidance

This Methodological Guidance clarifies some aspects of the voluntary application of the "safe and sustainable by design" (SSbD) framework for chemicals and materials. It combines the disciplines of "Risk Assessment" (RA) and "Sustainability Assessment" (SA), which have different methodologies, framing and terminology. This Methodological Guidance explains the rationale of the framework and replies to the feedback collected during several stakeholder consultations, which have contributed to its progressive refinement. It furthermore presents a method for scoping analysis and discusses why it is important to correctly frame the subsequent SSbD assessment. Following on, thematic chapters specifically address aspects of the two domains of the framework: safety assessment and environmental sustainability assessment, and also address socio-economic assessment.