Brussels Speech for RK:
50 Years On: Building a Competitive and Sustainable Industry
Introduction
Mr. Chairman, Mr Commissioner, Members of the European Parliament, colleagues,
ladies and gentlemen:
I am delighted to be here today, speaking to you on the
occasion of the 50th anniversary of the AISE and following in the footsteps of so many
distinguished speakers.
Any 50th birthday is a cause for celebration, a chance to look back over past
achievements and to look forward to challenges ahead. None of us should underestimate the contribution made by the AISE to the success of our industry, the
wellbeing of our consumers and the sustainability of our environment.
I want to take this opportunity to assure you, both colleagues and honoured guests,
that the AISE is fully committed to working ever more effectively to build a competitive
and sustainable industry - and to do so in a way which benefits members of society
both as users of our products and as European citizens.
Today, I would like to talk about what I believe to be the two main challenges that
currently face our industry:

living up to the commitments made at the Johannesburg summit on sustainable
development

making the European policy on chemicals and detergents workable for all
stakeholders
Looking back
Let me take you back a few years. In the first half of the twentieth century, the weekly
wash was a back-breaking routine using very hot water and soap. By 1952, the
founding year of the AISE, housewives (and the occasional househusband!) were
beginning to experience the liberating effects of synthetic detergents. In the past 5
decades we have seen unimaginable improvements in cleaning and hygiene; the
introduction of the washing machine, and then the dryer, detergents that not only get
our clothes cleaner, but look after them better too. Today, as we look back, we should
not underestimate what innovation and technology in our industry have done for the
man or woman in the street, and that includes all of us!
Continuous improvements in our products, driven by a combination of competitive
pressures within our industry and, increasing environmental awareness in society as a
whole, have benefited us all.
An improved understanding of consumer science,
toxicology and eco-toxicology means, in plain language, that we are learning more
and more about the benefits that can be delivered by our products, and the risks for
those who use them and for the environment in which they are deployed.
And, as we have deepened our understanding of what we do, we have put our
environmental learning into practice in our activities. Our association, the AISE, has
led the way in this area with our Code of Good Environmental Practice, and with the
Washright Campaign, an industry-wide initiative designed to educate and encourage
people to consume more responsibly. As you have heard earlier today, we are now
ready to launch a Charter for Sustainable Development, reflecting not only our social
and economic responsibilities, but our environmental ones too.
The current challenge
We indeed have much to be proud of, but we cannot rest on our past achievements.
Life has moved on, and we face new challenges. Of these, the most important is how
to continue to innovate and compete for the benefit of our consumers and our
customers, while living up to our commitment to sustainable development.
Consumer needs and expectations are getting more and more complex. Yes, they
are looking for better value and performance, convenience and choice. But there’s an
added dimension to their expectations – that we as manufacturers will behave
responsibly in producing and distributing our products, as well as ensuring that our
products are safe for both consumers and the environment.
Increasingly, people
expect sustainability in all aspects of our business. This means that we have to look
at the consumers and other users not simply as buyers of our competing products, but
also as global citizens with social and environmental concerns. In the same way,
professional and public cleaning needs to integrate sustainability within cleaning
solutions, in a more holistic manner.
Our long-term strategic vision must revolve around sustainable development. How
could it not? The concept of “unsustainable development” is unthinkable in today’s
world, both to us in the industry and to you, our guests from the European Institutions.
Signposts for the future – Johannesburg and what it means for us
The starting point for our recent focus on sustainable development was the
Johannesburg World Summit, for Johannesburg reinforced the view that sustainable
development today is about social and economic development, as well as
environmental development. There is no hierarchy here, no choice to be made: the
two must go hand in hand.
Whereas Rio was concerned with defining the sustainability agenda, Johannesburg
was focused on how to implement it.
There was a strong emphasis on multi-
stakeholder dialogues and partnerships – with each other, with the public sector, with
academia, governments and NGOs - as the path to progress. I very much believe that
our industry and this association, has something to contribute to the understanding of
business in this respect, having long sought to work with governments, regulators and
of course, to take account of public opinion.
So what did we learn from Johannesburg? First, we were reminded that we need to
combine competitiveness with sustainability. Secondly, that sustainability needs to be
built in to the way that we operate, not just in R&D but in innovation, product
development, in our selection of suppliers and in all of our systems and business
processes.
In practical everyday terms, we need to reduce our environmental loading and our
chemical disposal, improve biodegradability and minimise the impact of packaging. If
this means looking at the balance of materials from renewable and non-renewable
sources then, so be it. Most of all, we must be ready to work with our stakeholders to
deliver a competitive and sustainable industry.
The industry and European regulation
Europe needs a strong cleaning and hygiene industry, but it also needs a strong
chemical industry. At the heart of both industries must lie safe management. Our
ingredients are powerful:
they wouldn’t work efficiently if they weren’t.
But our
scientists and formulators work together continually to design products with good
attributes of degradability, so that once used the product is ready for the beneficial
impact of sewage treatment. We look forward to the time when the 1991 Urban
Wastewater Treatment Directive is fully implemented throughout the European Union.
Similarly, we look forward to assisting the EU with its emerging chemicals and
detergents policy. We, as an industry, are fully committed to working with the EU
Institutions and other stakeholders to develop a framework that will deliver the
environmental safeguards and sustainability benefits that we all require, without
diminishing our ability as an industry to compete, innovate and deliver what our
consumers and customers want.
We are at an important stage, today, in the development of European regulation as it
affects our industry.
We welcome the White Paper on Chemicals, with its overriding goal of sustainable
development and, in particular, its objectives relating to human health and the
environment. Equally important, as a downstream user of chemicals, is how the
principles of the Chemicals Policy will be translated into legislative and regulatory
practice. We agree that the check-list approach based on hazardous properties is
outdated and should be superseded by a sound, scientific risk-based approach,
backed up by accepted risk management controls.
Our approach to the forthcoming EU Chemicals Management regulation is governed
by two key principles:

The risk assessment of chemicals, which ultimately underlies sound regulation,
must be targeted to deliver real results, in areas of most concern, in the
shortest time frame.

Future EU Chemical Policy should be designed to increase consumer
confidence, by ensuring the safe and environmentally responsible use of
chemicals in household products, and the provision of meaningful information
based on targeted risk assessment.
The forthcoming legislation must be workable, transparent and efficient.
The
responsibilities of governments and industry must be clearly defined and understood.
It has to be a collaborative effort, with a real commitment by manufacturers,
downstream users and regulators to working together and sharing knowledge and
data.
Sharing HERA
As an industry, we want the new policy and legislation to work, and to do so it has to
be scientific, practical and well-founded. We would like to work in full partnership with
EU institutions and the Commission in particular, to develop the most effective system
for chemicals management, compatible with the needs of consumers, and for the
good of society as a whole.
Our offer is to make a concrete and practical contribution through risk assessment, an
area in which this industry is a leader. In the last 3 years, together with our colleagues
in the chemicals industry, we have developed and implemented the Human and
Environmental Risk Assessment (HERA) project, which is designed to assess
chemical risk. We have shared the results widely via various workshops and on our
website and, as Jurgen Seidler said, we have already evaluated more than 70% of the
total tonnage of ingredients used in household laundry detergents. HERA introduces a
new
degree
of
transparency
for
the
authorities,
consumer
organisations,
environmental watchdogs and other opinion leaders.
For more than 50 years, the detergents and cleaning industry has been developing
experience in risk assessment of chemicals. Projects such as HERA exemplify this
approach - as well as illuminating the problems we must all address in chemicals
management. By the time the new legislation comes fully into force, HERA will have
completed its work and all of our ingredients will have been evaluated.

We will have completed the equivalent of the Registration and Evaluation phases
of the REACh system for a variety of chemicals and hundreds of CAS numbers.

We will have accumulated case histories of the legal and management issues
facing consortia.

We will have exemplified the building of consortia spanning upstream and
downstream users.

We will have utilised the grouping of chemicals to speed the process.

We will have demonstrated the use of alternative means to bridge data gaps, other
than further animal testing.
HERA is the next great leap forward in chemical risk assessment. It puts consumer
safety and environmental sustainability at the top of our agenda. And it does so with
full public transparency. We would like for you, the European Institutions, to take
HERA as a model, as you deliberate on the future European chemicals policy, and we
would like your support to ensure that it is effectively integrated into the so-called
REACh system.
Conclusion
Mr. Chairman, Mr Commissioner, Members of the European Parliament, colleagues,
ladies and gentlemen, as I said in my introduction, we are here today, primarily to
celebrate the first 50 years of the work of the AISE.
During these 50 years, the member companies of this association have made an
outstanding contribution to cleanliness, personal hygiene, public health and well-being
across Europe and the wider world. We have made significant improvements in
performance and eco-efficiency, progress which can be measured and reported.
Sustainable consumption, a vital element in the quest for sustainable development,
is the challenge that now lies before us, and we all have a contribution to make.
This contribution necessitates working together as an industry with consumers and
other stakeholders, to find the best solutions for the future. We must define the
balance between competition and sustainability so that new products cut with the
grain of our social and environmental ambitions, and keep pace with public opinion.
We need to distinguish between collaborating to create a framework that enhances
sustainability, and competing with our brands within that framework. This is the
challenge that I would like to put before you this afternoon – the challenge that will
ultimately prove whether or not we have lived out the commitments we made in
Johannesburg. Are we prepared to make sustainability our first priority? Only if we, as
industry players and stakeholders, collaborate, will we ensure that sustainable
development will be a reality. The AISE is, and will remain, at the heart of the public
debate on these matters and will continue to provide the main forum for discussion of
sustainable development and chemicals management within our industry.
On behalf of all my industry partners, I look forward to AISE’s next 50 years and to an
ever closer relationship with all our stakeholders.
difference.
We can make an important